Nothing I've ever known
by jojoangel01
Summary: Shinichi determined to make it up to Ran, a firework, a first kiss, some swimming fun, lots of Heijiteasing, some naughty Heiji Kazuha scenes, a very interesting dinner stirred with lot of tender waff and love, what does that make? Hehe, you do the maths
1. Healing

_This story takes place right after: "The safest place" and is Manu's birthday story 2006. Again, a lot of things are going to happen. Lots of Shinichi/Heiji fun (those two are too much fun together) sweet Shinichi/Ran scenes, erotic Heiji/Kazuha parts, a surprising ending and a whole lot more! It's worth following. Pictures made to this story by Cherry-chan you can view on my homepage, check them out! And now, have fun with this fluffy chapter! Thanks for your support, love you all. Jojo_

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**"Nothing I've ever known"**

_by Jojo_

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When one looks up the words "illness" and "sickness", all the dictionary will say is:

**_Illness: a general word for a period of not being in good health. _**

**_Sickness: 1) illness, bad health; 2) a particular type of illness or disease. _**

Either way, it's clear that neither is something pleasant. Moreover, everybody has their own memories linked to an illness, be it from the furthest past or just a few weeks ago, pleasant, or unpleasant and disturbing. The average person would naturally tend to associate negative memories with any kind of illness but, as always, there were exceptions.

Mouri Ran, for example, was one of those exceptions, although she was not necessarily aware of it at the moment that this said exception took place. She has had a normal life, normal record of mostly common illnesses with the normal pain that took a few days to get well.

But, as she awoke in the morning of a chilly but sunny day after some painful days of a cold, she felt reborn. Like she hadn't even been sick in the first place.

Only slowly the memories of the previous day returned that brought light to the miracle. There were some flickers of Shinichi feeling her forehead, of Shinichi making soup for her, of Shinichi taking care of her in a gentle and sweet way that made her insides twitch immediately, of Shinichi making her rest and of him cuddling together with her in a warm, cosy bed until she fell asleep.

Shinichi…

Everything was about him. He could even make a cold a good memory, who else had this power? She couldn't think of anybody but him.

Where was he? For the split of a second, she was afraid that had already disappeared again, almost so much that she would not dare open her eyes and look for him. Her heartbeat increased in speed. Could he have done just that? Leave her behind again?

Chapter seven - Healing 

Shinichi was sleeping peacefully next to her.

After calming down, happy to the utmost about the fact that he was simply still here, she began to notice more things around her and especially around him. Like how he seemed to pant slightly, to sweat, his eyes were racing left and right underneath his lids and his whole face had an expression of worry that in turn started to concern Ran. She scooted a little closer, leaning over him as she looked down at him intently.

With a slight, silly grin in her heart, she leaned the last inches down, pressing her forehead against his and while secretly adoring the feeling of his skin against hers and the closeness, she drew back alarmed.

Shinichi was burning up! She had infected him with her cold after all, just as she had feared!

"Oh you dummy, I've told you not to come too close to me or you'd catch a cold and now look here!" she murmured, trying to sound angry while brushing the wet bangs out of his face and then stick to simply touching his arm and staring down at him in great concern that nagged at her heart. Shinichi didn't seem to be able to response or even hear her. He simply lay there, panting slightly and occasionally tossing a bit.

Then she turned and left the bed. Walking over to her closet, she took out her white bathrobe with the pink butterflies, put it on along with her pink, fluffy bunny-slippers and quickly exited the room. She came back as fast as she could with a small bucket filled with cold water and a cloth and started cleaning his forehead of the sweat. She evened his hair and stroked his head lovingly in the progress for a little longer than absolutely necessary. Okay, who was she kidding? For **some** time longer than necessary…

She felt something tingle inside as Shinichi leaned into her touch ever so slightly, soon moving his whole head towards her hand. He began murmuring something but no matter how much she wished she could understand one of the words he was whispering in his dream, she could not. But Ran had other things in her mind at the moment.

Her maternal instincts kicked in to high gear and before she knew it she was checking if his button-down shirt was sweat-stained. Unfortunately for her, it was. Her fear for his health won out over her embarrassment and with, red-faced, she decided on what she had to do, on the inevitable.

With red cheeks and a determined expression she walked out of her room and into her father's, directly to his drawer where she took out a fresh shirt and quickly walked back to the sick Shinichi, knowing that if she wanted him to get well soon she had to get the wet clothes off him as soon as possible.

Ran was now standing again, leaning over Shinichi, and looked at him for a very long moment. Determined to get through with this, she took a deep breath and carefully, as if not knowing what was waiting for her underneath, started peeling the cover off his body. Then she opened his top button before she could talk herself out of it and waited for a reaction of him, any reaction, but he didn't stir. She exhaled a deep breath, never noticing when she had taken it in the first place. Slowly but with a little more confidence, she worked her way down his shirt, opening one button after the other.

With another gulp, she pulled the two parts of the shirt apart, revealing the upper body of her childhood friend. Ran couldn't keep the blush away from her cheeks as she tried to get the sleeves down his arms while noticing that she had forgotten how well-formed his body really was.

It had been some time since she had last seen him without a shirt on, but she remembered it most vividly. It had been one of those last times that Shinichi had played soccer on the school team. To be exact, it had been Shinichi's second-to-last game, against another school from Tokyo. Certainly it was good that Teitan High had won, thanks to Shinichi's two goals, but as she secretly had to agree with Sonoko (though she would never tell her so openly); the best thing had been the exchange of the players' shirts AFTER the game. How terrible that Shinichi had been sweating so much he had decided to spend the rest of the after-game party on that warm afternoon in nothing but his soccer shorts.

_'Oh my!'_ Ran thought confused and shook her head. _'Looks like I have let myself get distracted! I am _staring_ at him!'_ she blushed thinking about it and quickly took his shirt off completely, going back to her task of cleaning him with the wet cloth. But the image in her head just wouldn't vanish for a very-long-time.

As she had successfully cleaned the sweaty guy off, she tried seating him up a bit and pulled her father's shirt over his arms. Well, after eight minutes of struggling she had managed to complete her task and covered the now dry-clothed Shinichi up again.

His expression had changed over the past hour and somehow seemed more at peace. She found his face adorable. Maybe it was because she hadn't had the opportunity to look at it thoroughly for such a long time. Maybe it was because of something else… Whatever it was, at this moment, Ran simply didn't care. All that mattered was that Shinichi got well again.

She leaned down and kissed his forehead slowly, the warmth in her belly floating around without pausing once. Stroking his forehead, she gave him a last warm look before disappearing again, this time to the kitchen to prepare tea and soup for him. It was a habit, actually; every time she had been sick, her mom did this for her and she, in turn, always did it for her father and for some time for the little Conan as well. Now, with a sweet smirk on her lips, she realized that this could be considered just as much as returning a favour, since Shinichi had done the same for her the previous night, when she had needed it most.

She was certain that it as only thanks to him that she was already feeling so much better and she knew the honorable thing to do would be to look after his health in turn, even if there did not exist anything on this world that she would rather love doing at the moment.

---

Shinichi opened his eyes for the first time since the sun has risen and the first thing he felt was a painful knot in his throat. He tried to groan and the pain intensified, forcing him to hold his throat in a hand. Only slowly, his other symptoms attracted his attention. He felt like he somebody had forgotten to turn the heater off, in summer. He was still sweating and because of the heat he was feeling, panting as well.

What was going on? This had never happened before; he had never felt this weak after turning back to Conan, what was wrong?

He coughed, bringing his hand up to cover his mouth, when he suddenly saw it. His hand. It was a lot bigger than anticipated… Shinichi slowly looked down at himself. He felt like screaming out but even if his throat would have played along, his mouth didn't. He was struck speechless.

His initial plan had been to sleep with Ran, (_'No need to blush, you hentai.' _His mind railed. _'Sleep NEXT to Ran is what you meant!'_ _'I know!' _he argued back. ) wake up due to the immense pain that he had to go through every time he transformed and then quickly leave to come back in the morning as Conan. And now, look at him. Here he was, late morning as it seemed, still in Ran's bed but in a terribly condition. And most importantly, he was still himself. Still Shinichi.

What had gone wrong?

Thinking with a cold is kind of difficult, even for detectives, but after some time he eventually came up with an answer that seemed to satisfy him. He suddenly remembered.

"Ran?" a quiet voice uttered her name.

She immediately put down the knife that she had been using to cut the vegetables with and cleaned her hands on her apron as she walked to the room where her name had come from. There she went over to the bed where Shinichi lay staring at her from underneath the covers.

"Shinichi, you are awake??" she smiled motherishly and placed a hand on his forehead.

"Yeah… what happened?" he tried to sit up but Ran firmly but gently pushed him back down.

_'Oh, the poor boy. He just returned for a visit, had to nurse me and now he is sick himself. That's so unfair, why has he to be so unlucky?' _

Ran smiled guiltily and compassionately at him. Still, her maternal instincts won over every other emotion.

"No, stay in bed! You've caught my cold and you need rest to get well!"

"But Ran-!" he tried again but had no chance for she immediately pushed him back down.

"No, Shinichi, I am serious! Stay in bed! You are still hot. I'll be back with your soup in a minute, so listen to me!" she told him sternly as she saw that he was about to stand up again. He was about to open his mouth again as: "You know this look!" she pointed at her stern face.

"I am dead serious, so lay back down!" she looked firmly and seriously at him, still pointing with her index finger at her face, her eyebrows drawn strict towards each other.

Shinichi could only stare at her, his body tense as he was still leaning on his elbows in order to sit up. Soon, he realized that he really had no way of getting out of here when Ran was looking at him like that. He knew her better than that, and in his current position, too… Besides…he really was not feeling any good. The only reason he wanted to stand up and probably leave was because he was afraid of suddenly turning back into the hated body.

Yesterday, as 1 a.m. had passed, and he still hadn't turned back, our great detective had been able to fall asleep for real. This had meant that the pill had shown some progress and that it didn't last only 24 but 36 hours, which meant for him another 12 hours of being Shinichi. Ai had mentioned this kind of side-effects once but she had never been certain enough of them to actually rely on it for any kind of antidote. But he didn't care right now. Another 12 hours of staying at her side and that was truly something he wanted from the depths of his heart.

After so much luck, wasn't it ironic that he had to get sick right away? Honestly, he really should go and have a long talk with fate about irony and things being fair and unfair.

Sighing, Shinichi laid back down in the bed. This earned him a beautiful and thoroughly satisfied smile from Ran that made him swallow unconsciously, only to have the knot in his throat protest.

"Good boy!" she chuckled and Shinichi wanted to respond, almost offended, but she placed a hand over his mouth. "Don't! You have to save your strength. You still have fever and therefore a cold. I want you to get well as soon as possible, so stay right here and let me nurse you."

They shared a deep look with each other. The emotions passing between those two at that moment can't properly be described or written down, for their complexity was simply too high.

"How are YOU feeling?" he asked with low voice that still clearly showed his concern about her. She smiled back tenderly.

"I am fine, really. I woke up and felt all better. After all, I've had a really good nurse. Don't worry about me and try to rest here as much as you can, ok? Who knows when you really have to go back? And there you'll probably don't have any time to rest and get well."

Shinichi only looked at her, with such a deep affection in his eyes that she found it hard to breathe for a moment. She took his hand and squeezed it, as if trying to ask him to listen to her; she was really worried about his well being.

His whole body un-tensed and he lay back down full way, making clear he'd be a good boy and listen to her. Smiling with satisfaction again, she brushed the back of her hand over his cheek.

"I'll be right back with the tea and the soup!"

He nodded and closed his eyes, the slightly content expression now clearly visible on his face. Smiling to herself, Ran quickly made her way back to the kitchen, after making sure the wet cloth was once again on his forehead.

---

The last time somebody had done anything similar for Shinichi was…a long time ago. His parents had still lived in the Kudo mansion with him, then. Back then, it had been his mother who would look after him when he was sick.

And now, seeing her like this was, to him, like a little miracle.

Ran sat down on the edge of the bed, placing the teacup on the night-stand. Then she helped him sit up gently, taking the cloth away from his forehead. Then she placed the cup with soup on his lap, looking at him expectantly.

Shinichi had to chuckle -even though it hurt he couldn't help it-as he looked at the soup. "This looks a lot better than my try from yesterday."

Ran had to smile. "Well, I only have more experience. That doesn't mean it necessarily has to taste better than yours."

Shinichi raised an eye-brow, showing her his doubts about her words clearly.

Ran had to chuckle at this and waved with one hand. "Oh be quiet and eat your soup before it gets cold," she chided him gently, with merriment in her eyes.

Shinichi couldn't help but smile at her. How he loved her smile.

He started eating after blowing on the small amount on the spoon a little. Then he looked at her again with a bigger grin. "I knew it, this is so much better!"

Ran blushed at the praise, feeling the heat from her cheeks soaring through her whole body and coming to rest as warm ball of emotions in her stomach. With satisfaction and a happy song in her heart, she watched him eat her soup with pleasure. That was the greatest compliment that he could make her.

Too soon, he was finished and looked with a content expression at the pretty cook.

"Thanks a lot, this really was great!"

Against her will, she blushed again and looked at the cup that she took a hold of, using it as convenient distraction so that she didn't have to look at him at the moment.

"You are welcome."

Almost out of reflex (she definitely did not act consciously) she put the empty cup aside and took a new cloth that she had brought with her. With it, she patted his forehead and face, making sure no sweat was left. Happily, she observed that he didn't seem to be burning as much as he had before.

"Great, the fever is going down already!" she murmured and looked at his eyes for the first time again.

He only looked back, pulling her inside in some kind of trance until at some point it became too much for her and she blushed badly.

"Now that you are full and warm from the inside and the outside, you have some more sleep and you'll feel like new when you wake up, I promise!" she told him that sternly but gently at the same time that he knew there was no way he could do anything but obey her.

He lay back down, covering himself to the chest. Ran took the blanket, pulling it the rest of the way up to his chin, and tucked him in securely. She smiled sweetly at him and he responded to the smile with one of his own.

She bent a little so that she was hovering above him, their faces only a few inches apart.

"Rest tight and get well soon." She whispered tenderly and pressed an endless sweet and gentle kiss against his temple.

A huge contented smile spread all over Shinichi's face. No matter how bad he had been feeling just a few moments ago, suddenly it was all gone.

More than anything, he wanted to tell her how he felt about her. Tell her how much he loved her. But he knew he couldn't do so just yet; he might be gone the next moment. But he knew that there were other ways to let her know how he felt, even without having to voice those special, all-important little words.

Without another word passing between them, he reached for her hand and intertwined his finger with hers. The eye contact never broke. Shinichi scooted a little to make space in the bed and through their linked hands he gently pulled Ran to lie down next to him. Then he covered their linked hands with his free one.

Their hands in between them, their faces only a few inches apart and looking at each other, they held eye contact for some time, simply looking at the eyes of the other, nothing more. Then he let out a sigh, smiled at her and closed his eyes, pulling her hands a little tighter towards his chest before he slowly drifted off into a peaceful, healing sleep.

---

It was late afternoon when Shinichi stirred and eventually woke up from his deathlike slumber. He laid still and only slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he saw being the ceiling of Ran's room. He needed a few seconds to understand where he was and what the situation he was in implied exactly and suddenly a cold arrow shoot in his heart. Immediately, he rose to his elbows and lifted a hand to look at it and plopped back down in pure relief.

He did not change back at some point. He was still his teenager self and that fact surprised him. He had slept from the time he had eaten the soup until now and 1 p.m. was way past the change-back time. What had happened?

"Hey." Ran greeted him quietly as he opened his eyes. He turned his head to the left, only now noticing the girl in the bed next to him although he was still holding her hand.

He looked a moment at her, needing the time to make his brain work before he started smiling at her. "Hey."

"Are you feeling any better?" the concerned girl asked without really thinking about it.

Shinichi took some time to listen to his body, seeing if he felt any pain. For a moment he was more relieved than any words could tell to still be in his own, grown-up body. He exhaled a breath of pure relief which caused Ran to look at him with concern shining in her eyes. He grinned a lopsided grin and turned his head a bit to look at her.

_'I was so lucky! If my deductions are correct, then it's thanks to my current state of health that I could stay as myself for longer than I thought. __It's a miracle. __Bacteria can be so useful sometimes.' _

"I feel **a** **lot** better!"

Only as she was convinced that what he was saying resembled the truth, she smiled back, a bright and beautiful smile that had him staring at her in awe.

"I'm so glad!" she murmured with an expression that clearly showed satisfaction. She held his gaze, staring deeply into his eyes before breaking the eye contact. She lay her head back down on the pillow.

"So, you are feeling completely healthy again?" Ran asked him with caution.

He touched his chest and his face, taking his time, then looked at her with a smile. "Yep, I am all right again! Thanks to you!"

"Naahhh." Ran blushed, waving her hand in front of her and looking in the other direction at the same time.

Silence fell upon them (and lasted for at least a minute); both sat still, trying to look anywhere but the other while figuring out what to say. It lasted until Ran quietly spoke up again.

"I am happy that you are feeling better!"

Shinichi only smiled at her. It was a soft, warm smile that would have **some** girls catching her breath. Of course, our sweet Ran was no exception.

When he didn't say anything, she gathered her courage and went on, posing the question that was nagging at her stomach ever since she had woken up.

"Shi-Shinichi…do you…have to go anytime soon?"

That, as Shinichi found, was a very good question, indeed. How was he to answer her when he himself had no idea what his body was planning for him? He hated this uncertainty and the fact that he had no satisfactory answer for her.

"I don't know…" _'Well, that's the truth, what can I do about it?'_

"I guess that I still have some time. No idea how long, though!" There was regret in his voice, although he knew it was the complete truth. All of the complete truth that he could to tell her at this point without putting her in any danger.

To his surprise, Ran seemed satisfied enough with his answer. She smiled broadly at him, trying inwardly to stay calm and to keep her courage up to ask the other question she'd meant to ask him.

"You see…today, there is this little festival in the park of Tropical Land. It's like a small amusement park and they have a fireworks show an hour before midnight. What do you think? I'd l-like to spend some… time with you and…um…W-would you like to go…there…with me?" she asked him shyly, trying to cover the blush on her cheeks with her hair as she hung her head a bit.

Inwardly she was cursing herself for her forwardness. Did she really think there'd be the slightest chance for him to go to this festival with her? He hadn't been here for the past months, and now why would he just like that go with her to that park? He probably had a ton other things that he'd rather attend to while being here and he was sick this morning and…had she always been that naïve?

_'Stupid Ran, stupid! God, you are so silly! Hopelessly silly, my girl!' _

"You don't have to come, I mean if you are feeling too beaten I can understand that, really, and you have to know that-" she kept ranting, not really looking at him but trying her best to cover her embarrassment.

"Of course I want to go!" Shinichi cut her off suddenly.

Her head shot up. "What? Really?"

In the few seconds that she had been waiting for a reply, she had inwardly prepared for any possible answer from Shinichi, except for this.

Shinichi on the other hand felt really bad. She shouldn't be afraid to ask him things like that, and it was completely his fault that she held this fear in her heart because he hadn't been there the way he should have been for her the past months. And, as he watched her quivering voice ask him this simple question, her fingers balled to fists in her lap, her proud head hanging down, he knew he could not turn her down, no matter that he had no idea when he might turn back. Or if he would turn back.

Okay, so this uncertain situation really was getting to him, but right now he felt good. Why should he run from the love of his life, again, and hide in the dark corners, waiting for his body to turn back to Conan?

_'No, thank you!' _

He may not have known when or of he might turn back, but one thing he did know, and that was that he couldn't bear to disappoint the young woman in front of him. Not to mention that his heard picked up speed at the thought of spending the whole day with her, doing other things than hunting murderers and examining corpses.

_'Oh my god, please don't let us run into some cases!'_ He sweated a little at the horrible thought but tried to cover it with a nervous chuckle.

"But first I need to change into my own clothes!" he gestured down at himself with a funny expression that she shared.

"I would hope so! I wouldn't take you with me in this, anyway!" she teased him playfully, and both chuckled.

"Okay, so another reason for me to go home, shower and change. I'll come to pick you up in… an hour?"

"Oh… okay!" she agreed and he stood up and started walking to the door, already feeling eager to change and come back, as he felt his hand being held back by hers.

Ran had taken hold of it and was looking at their hands with the most lost expression that he had ever seen in her beautiful eyes.

"Ran?" he questioned carefully.

With miserable voice she answered his unspoken question, not taking her eyes from where she had his hand enveloped in between her two.

"Do you promise me that you'll come back? Really come? That you won't disappear again?"

He looked at her with his big eyes, surprised, finding his voice gone. All the sorrow and fear he saw in her eyes struck him like a spear in the guts. How could he not rot in hell for an eternity for putting this pure being through all of this trouble? For being responsible that she had to experience that much sorrow?

But he could do only one thing. Try his hardest to make it all up to her. And may he be cursed if he failed in his task.

Gathering all his courage, he took a deep breath and leaned down to her eye-level.

"Ran…I am so sorry that I…" He looked down at her hands, his thump stroking over the back of her hand as suddenly he found himself at a loss of words. For the split of a second, he could hear Hattori's ringing laughing was he ever to see him speechless, the 'almighty Kudo'.

What was he sorry for? That he failed her? That he had disappeared and left her back for so long? That… a better question would be, was there anything he was not sorry for?! He knew he had to do his best to make it up to her.

"I promise. I will be back in one hour, all clean and good-smelling and nicely dressed, ok?" he smirked at her in a way that would have lesser girls than Ran sighing and weak in the knees.

_'Please my body, don't turn back and force me to disappoint her yet again.' _

She saw the truth in his eyes and the way they sparkled with his light laughter, the curve of his lips (only one corner, of course) that curved up so delicately and so…typical her childhood-friend that she could do nothing but join in his chuckling, relief flooding all of her cells and nerve-endings.

"Okay!" she agreed, earning herself another handsome smile from him.

Shinichi sighed out mentally, content with himself for once.

"I'll hurry up then! See you in an hour!"

He steadied himself for something that was not absolutely and completely necessary but that his whole body was crying out for. Plus, he knew that she more than deserved it. Trying to convince himself that he was solely doing this for her, but not quite succeeding, he let actions follow.

"And before I forget it…" he leaned close to the girl whose hands he was still holding and gave her a kiss on her cheek, "… thank you, for everything!"

Before she had the chance to see his bad blush or to respond in any way, he gave her hands a last squeeze, turned and disappeared out of her view. In the distance she heard the front door close quietly. Ran only stared after him, totally perplexed, a hand slowly moving up to caress the spot on her cheek where he had kissed her only seconds ago, the look of awe on her face not leaving it for about eight whole minutes. Because then, she remembered that she had only 52 minutes left to prepare for her date with Shinichi.

"WHAT?" she almost screamed, re-checking her watch and then springing up as if bitten by a turtle. Then she started whirling around the house, almost panicked but still singing softly to herself, picking her clothes up and the things she needed for a shower. She disappeared into the bathroom as quickly as she could.

_'Oh my god, only 48 minutes left to prepare!' _

Outside of the Mori Detective Agency, a young man was leaning against the front-door, eyes closed and listening with a slight smile dancing on his lips to the distant noises of Ran running around the house to prepare herself in time, her softly singing voice in the background. Some guys might roll their eyes and be pissed at the fact that their girls cared so much about things as rendezvous and spend so much effort on preparing, but to Shinichi it meant so much. Like, the fact that Ran was all right, even happy and that he had succeeded in giving her a small piece of normality the way she deserved it; this fact alone made him happier than anyone could imagine.

Life was, for once, good to him.

_'Shut up, Kudo! Better not tempt fate and jinx the whole thing!' _

Hands in his pockets, the young detective descended the stairs and started walking home. After all, he had to prepare himself as well. And on the way to his house, following a course he had taken often over the past months, he found that he had never taken this path as light-hearted as he felt now, the fact that he could turn back any time banished to the most secluded corner of his mind.


	2. Fireworks

_ What's there to say except that two reviews are very disappointing and making me sad. So much work is in this...Thanks to those two anyway...I really don't know what else to say...I hope this story is not that bad. _

_Enjoy this. Love, Jojo_

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Chapter eight - Fireworks

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Shinichi was almost punctual as he arrived to pick her up. Ran opened the door and he turned to look at her and greet her as he found that no sound was coming out of his mouth and that his heart was beating faster all of a sudden.

Well, everybody with the same view would understand the poor, dumbstruck detective. His drop-dead-gorgeous childhood-friend was a sight that would have robbed lesser men of their breaths.

She was wearing a beautiful, sunny dress. It was one piece but looked like two, the upper-piece checked with different tones of pink and white, the arms being puffed a little and it only reached to the under-side of her breasts. It had a ruffle collar that matched the equally ruffled arm-sleeves. The rest of the knee-length dress was purely white and she wore matching white shoes on that were a little taller than her usual ones and had white laces wound around her ankles.

All in all, it seems unnecessary to say that Ran looked absolutely, breathtakingly gorgeous. Literally.

She smiled at him and twirled around once. "Well, what do you think?"

Shinichi gulped in a paradoxical attempt to recover his ability of talking. Seeing the anticipation in her eyes, he gulped again and moved his head in a few nods. "Yes, v-very... nice."

_'Oh great, you stupid! You have the most beautiful sight in front of you and all you can think of is: "nice"? Oh, how clever!'_ he kept scolding himself.

But Ran smiled; his light blush and stuttering told her everything already.

"R-ready to go?" she smiled sweetly at him.

"Sure!" _'Thankfully my voice returned. Man, when you can't even trust your own body…!'_

They soon arrived at the Tropical Land area and entered. Both were immediately awash with déjà-vu but said nothing. Especially, since for the past minutes Shinichi had a totally different problem that was occupying his brain completely.

_'Come on, stupid, take her hand. You know you want to, don't be such a coward!' _

He directed a sideways glance down to her hand and to his dismay his cheeks started coloring.

"Hm?" she tilted her head to the side and looked at him, mildly concerned. "You ok, Shinichi?"

He put his best smile on, trying not to look too innocently since Ran could always look through it. "Yeah, I'm fine!" In the meanwhile his brain was furiously scolding him.

_'Stupid, stupid, stupid...' _

He sighed.

As Ran stopped walking and kept gazing at something, he stopped and turned as well. She looked at Shinichi, grinning.

"What do you say? Do you want to?"

He could only nod, although inside he felt a little odd about this. Nevertheless, he followed her, his hands still in his darned pockets, to the roller coaster that they had ridden almost a year ago.

The strange déjà-vu continued and Shinichi kept looking behind him. As it was their turn to sit on the roller coaster, he made sure that nobody was sitting behind them.

_'You never know!'_ he kept telling himself while trying to shake off the strong feeling of paranoia.

Ran was feeling the same sensation of a strong déjà-vu but she remained silent and simply wondered why Shinichi hadn't mentioned Holmes even once today.

"Do you really feel all right, Shinichi?" she leaned to him, patting his forehead gently.

"Yeah, don't worry about me." The train started moving with a jerk. "You better worry about that!" he told her, pointing forward.

Ran's eyes widened as she saw them approach a gigantic abyss at a fast pace. She clenched her eyes shut immediately and instinctively reached for Shinichi's hand, just like she had last time.

This time, the young man looked down at their hands as well and he even blushed again, but it took him less time to hold her hand back in his effort to comfort her a little. He was satisfied with this turn of events and didn't let go of her hand for the rest of the ride.

To his pleasure, she didn't let go of his hand even after descending from the roller coaster and that's why our two kept walking through the park in comfortable conversation, reminiscent of their last time here.

They came to a little stall that sold cotton candy. On more than one occasion Ran had bought cotton candy for little Conan, although he never asked for it. He knew that it was only an excuse for her to buy it, so he pulled her gently over by her hand.

"What do you say?" he grinned at her invitingly.

Ran's eyes brightened. "Are you saying you are going to buy me cotton candy?" she asked, almost in a teasing fashion.

"Yep, that was the plan. Unless you don't want any, that is…" he started walking away but she held him back and giggled.

"Are you kidding me? Of course I want some!"

He grinned at her and went to talk to the old sales-woman who was observing the two lovebirds with a slight smile and warm looks. Seldom had she seen something this cute.

Only a few minutes later, a happy Ran was contently munching her cotton candy after having reclaimed one of his hands and Shinichi was content to watch her eat with devotion.

"How did you know that I love cotton candy, anyway?"

He grinned coolly at her. "I am a detective, remember?"

She rolled her eyes, wondering how that made any sense in light of her question, but she kept silent.

"Oh right, how could I ever forget that!?" But then she smiled. "It was so sweet of you, though, thank you!" she held his hand tighter to emphasize her point.

"Y-you're welcome."

She let go of his hand for a second and took some of the candy between her fingers, then turned and laughed. "Say aaaahhhh!"

Shinichi looked at the sweet candy that Ran was presenting him and almost laughed. How many times had she done this to him while he had been little? Had shared her food with little Conan who she adopted like some kind of brother, if not son.

He felt a new, strong wave of affection for this pure-hearted girl in front of him; it caused his insides to tingle. Bending a little, he accepted her offer.

"This is so sweet!" he admitted and upon seeing her shining eyes couldn't help the next comment. "Almost as sweet as you!" and he bend down to kiss her cheek.

Shinichi enjoyed her shocked expression and her red cheeks more than he could say and walked ahead a few feet, his hands in his pockets, before turning back to grin at her.

"Well, are you glued there? Aren't you coming?"

She immediately snapped out of it and ran to him, coming to a halt right beside him while looking at him with a mix of sadness and concern. "Hey, are you making fun of me?"

Shinichi could only grin. "Not at all, dear, not at all." And to prove his point he gathered his courage and laid his arm around her shoulder.

Ran looked at him with surprise but knew that he was serious. So, she relaxed again and leaned against him as they walked on and she ate her candy, almost feeling the happiness shining through her. Oh yes, this was most definitely nice. Now and then she fed him some tufts of her candy, giggling like a teenager as he once licked at her fingers, too.

"What do you want to do next?" he asked her after she had finished her cotton candy.

All of a sudden, Ran came to a halt in front of a stall where there were prizes to win.

"Oh, isn't that little bunny so adorable?" She said unwittingly and to nobody in particular. Her sparking eyes were glued to a cute, white stuffed toy decorated with a smile and a red–and- white-striped tie around its neck; one of the prices to win if you managed to knock down ten tin-cans with only three balls. "It really…" she fell silent.

Shinichi stared at the bunny, a little puzzled, then at Ran and back again. The expression in her eyes alone made something inside him click. Hadn't he promised himself to do everything so that she had the time of her life today? She wanted the bunny? She would get the bunny!

"One try, please!" he lay the money on the table, a little harder than necessary but boy, this guy was both determined and sure of his soon victory.

In his mind he could already hear her praising words and feel her hug in all her gratitude, looking with shining eyes at him, near tears because of what he had done, only for her!

_ "Oh, Shinichi, thank you so much, you are the best. My hero! I don't know what I would do without you. You are so strong and clever and…" _

_"Nooo, enough of the praising, my dear. For you I'd go and catch a star, fly you to the moon and back and even that's no effort at all for me, really!"_

"Really!" he murmured with closed eyes, the pictures in his mind still moving vividly.

"Uhm, Shinichi?" A hand tapped him lightly on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"W-what?" he opened his eyes to meet two slightly alarmed ones.

"It seemed like you were off in gaga-land just now. You ok? Is the fever coming back?"

He blushed badly and looked back at the seller, eyes closed for a second in mild embarrassment. "I am fine. Now watch the master work and **kill** those cans!"

He took the basked filled with the red balls and took one in his hand, grinning sure of his near victory. Ran smiled politely at this manner that was so typical for men. Why was it that all guys were like this? For a second she had to think of Heiji but she had no idea why.

He threw, an exceptional look on his face. But his features fell as not even one tin was thrown down.

Smiling, a little embarrassed, at Ran but saying nothing, he quickly turned back and took the next ball in his hand. Tilting his head to the side, his tongue between his lips, he closed one eye, aimed and shot.

The wall quivered, the cans stood tall and proud in front of him. For the split of a second he had the feeling he had heard them laugh at him maliciously and something inside his brain snapped.

More money was slapped on the counter, a little harder than necessary. "Another try, please!"

The salesman blinked confused, feeling the hair on his arms stand up a bit at Shinichi's tone but complied, sliding a new basket with balls over to the young man, nervously.

Granted, he had seen a lot of men going mad at this game, but this new display in front of him…it was a pity, really.

Shinichi tried again, now putting all his effort and concentration in these three balls and was, logically, more than frustrated as at the end there were still six cans standing proudly in front of him.

"One more try!"

So he tried again and again, always coming close but never quite succeeding. This was freaking the young detective out to no end.

"Another try!"

"Sh-Shinichi…" Ran tried to calm him down but he only held his hand up to show her that he was very serious about it, as if saying that this fight was between the cans and him.

And he tried again, four cans standing tall and Ran could have sworn she saw the young man actually fume. He ordered more balls and tried again and again…but never managing to hit over all ten cans.

At one point he even forced the seller to lift the cans in order to prove that they were real and not painted or glued together as Shinichi was thinking. And for a moment he had been so sure about it that the poor man only obeyed out of fear, thinking the mad young man could harm him. It was nothing personal, really. But the slightly mad look on Shinichi's features would have scared even tougher men.

To his slight embarrassment and dismay, they had been quite real, no trick behind it.

"Right..." Shinichi murmured. "One more try, please!"

"Shinichi, there really is no need to-"

"No, Ran, let me do this!" he held a hand up to reassure her and she did quiet down, smiling in a strange and forced way; this was starting to get really embarrassing for her. But as she saw the stubbornness and persistence in his eyes it reminded her a little on when they were kids. He had always refused to let something be only because grown-ups told him that they were too difficult for him. That had never stopped him from trying. He never gave up, she knew that, and it seemed that he had not changed at all. In a way, this thought made her smile a real smile that came from deep down and warmed her from the inside.

She somehow understood that he had to do this for his ego. To him it was as if his male pride depended from winning this heated battle between himself and the ten 'metal-bastards', as he was now calling them.

Ran sighed.

But then, two tries later, he had only one ball left and four cans were still standing. He looked at Ran's tense gaze and made a silent plea to the heavens to let him win this. 'It's not for me, but for the girl of my dreams, so please grant me this one small wish!'

He shot, Ran covered her eyes with her hands, the sells-man held his breath. Neither really believing what happened, although two third of the persons present hoped for it, Shinichi hit the cans in a way that made them all fly down.

"YEAH!"

"WAH!"

He and Ran screamed. He jumped high in the air; Ran was jumping up and down and clapping her hands. In a flash, Ran and Shinichi were in each others arms, hugging and jumping a little together. As they realized this, they blushed a bit and slowly pulled away.

More than proudly, Shinichi presented her the bunny. A man winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games could not have looked more proud and happy.

It was then that Shinichi realized just how much he had spent on this bunny. He could have gotten at least ten of the kind in any shop. That must have been the most expensive gift ever, and it didn't even contain jewelery. He gulped, mentally slapping himself.

But, as our great tantei looked, really looked at the beauty in front of him, who was literally staring at the little furry stuffed toy in nothing but pure awe in her eyes and he was drawn in sort of a trance towards her, he knew that it had been more than worth it.

"Thank you so much, Shinichi!" she finally looked up at him.

He blushed a lovely shade of pink and put his arms behind his head in a cool fashion.

"Nah, it was nothing!"

At this "nothing" she looked knowingly at him, knowing exactly that it had NOT been "nothing". Shinichi only blushed deeper and looked away.

"Wanna move on?"

"Sure!" she answered, still beaming happily.

Smiling a little smugly to himself, he stuck his hands in his pockets, feeling really content inside. For a moment he wondered if he had any chance to take her hand again. He had been enjoying this little gesture immensely. To him, holding the hand of a person shows that you are close to that person and even that you belong together. It's just…very nice.

But to his disappointment he discovered that he had no way of doing so because both her hands were preoccupied with the bunny. And asking her aloud for that thing…let's say, he has already done enough blushing today.

As they walked on, poor Shinichi felt a pout coming up. Fortunately for him, Ran must have been thinking along the same lines. Glancing at him sideways quickly, seeing him still walking with his hands in his pockets, she quietly took a deep breath to steel her nerves, and walked closer to his side. He had only time to blink before she looped her right arm through his left, not pulling it from its pocket.

He looked at her surprised to find her gaze lowered to the ground, her cheeks flushed in a beautiful crimson. Leaning his shoulder a little towards her as a sign that he more than accepted her offer, he looked back at the road in front of him (he had almost tripped over an ice-cream that a little boy had lost his grip on and who was crying on his mother's shoulder a few meters away) and thankfully could not see in a mirror because he'd have discovered that he was grinning like a fool. And that even more as he saw her smile enchantingly at his leaning his shoulder against hers.

Honestly, wasn't she the most adorable thing ever to walk on this earth?

What a question? That wasn't a question, he was certain of it. And being allowed to have this opportunity to spend this day with her was the greatest gift that the heavens could grant him, after the gift of bringing her into his life, of course, and his heart suddenly felt so warm it was almost burning in his chest.

Meanwhile, Ran was smiling to herself, content to the limit.

What Shinichi did not know, was that the white bunny reminded Ran on an event from her childhood.

At that time, Ran had been five years old. Her mother and her father had separated only one year before and little Ran was praying faithfully every night that they would find their way back together.

As Eri had left, she had given Ran a small, white stuffed bunny with a yellow tie around its neck. For reasons that only a mind of a small kid could comprehend, this bunny had been Ran's most precious possession ever since. Mr. Fluffy, as she called it, had been her favorite toy and she would take it with her everywhere. Until one day, she was playing in the park with Shinichi and Sonoko, she found that her beloved toy, which she had left back with her jacket on a bench along with the other kids jackets, gone.

"How can it be gone?" little Sonoko asked her best friend.

"I don't know!" Ran answered almost panicked while looking for the tenth time underneath the small wood-bench. "I left it exactly here!" she fumbled with her little arms, pointing at the little mountain of jackets. "And now it's GONE!" at this point the tears broke lose, the horror of having lost her precious bunny being too much to bear.

"Ran-chan, don't cry!" Sonoko put an arm on her shoulder. "We'll search for it and find it, ne, Kudo-kun?" she directed a piercing gaze at the young boy who stood next to her but he was paying her no attention. Instead, he had a hand on his chin and was examining the bench.

"Don't you think that's strange?" five year old Shinichi finally asked the girls.

"What?"

"Well, if somebody has stolen it, why aren't there any traces on the mud right here?" he pointed at the ground.

"T-that's right!" Ran sniffed. "But what does that tell us?"

"I have the feeling we have to search over there…" Shinichi went on.

"Okay, you two look over there and I will go this way. Splitting up seems a good idea and gives you some alone-time, hehe!" Sonoko said smugly, giggling to herself and walked away. But Ran and Shinichi were too preoccupied to notice Sonoko's hint.

So, the three kids split and went their ways to look for Ran's toy.

"Shinichi?"

"Hm?" he was looking at the ground exactly, left and right, deep in concentration.

"Do…do you think somebody…kidnapped Mr. Fluffy?" Ran's teary voice asked him.

Shinichi gulped. He knew she was about to cry and he knew as well that he wouldn't be able to stand it.

"Calm down, Ran, no matter what has happened to it, we'll find it!"

"R-really?"

"Yeah!" he smiled as confidently as he could at her and laid an arm on her shoulder as a clumsy attempt to soothe her a little.

His confidence and kindness almost forced Ran to believe him. She smiled gratefully at him.

"Okay!"

They searched around the park for quite some time, Shinichi leading the way until at some point he suddenly reached a hand out to hold her back.

"Wait, I can hear something! Ran, wait here! It might be dangerous!"

"No, I want to go with you!"

"No!! I can't risk getting you in any danger. Now, stay here!" he told her firmly, his eyes full of concern for her.

Ran was baffled. She could only nod, feeling her cheeks grow a little warm and color a slight pink. Shinichi turned and disappeared behind a bush.

"Take care!" she whispered after him.

Four minutes later, Shinichi returned with a sad expression, making Ran stand up in a flash and run towards him.

"Shinichi, what happened? Did you find it?"

"Uhm…" he looked at her miserably, then back at the ground. "I…I did…"

"Really? Where is it then?"

"It…Ran, it…you can't see it." It was more than visible that this wasn't easy for Shinichi.

"What? Why?" a shocked girl asked him bewildered.

"You see…as I saw no foot-prints of any human near that bench I looked closer and saw this little prints of a cat or a dog, most probably a dog, though. We followed them and I found the bunny near that said dog. It's a bad dog, really and he has…" he trailed off. How could he tell her that there was not much left of her favorite stuffed toy thanks to that brutal dog?

"He ate…my bunny?" Ran asked in disbelief, her big eyes way bigger than usual.

"W-well…y-yeah…" he murmured guiltily and looked down at his shoes in shame. Maybe, if he'd been a little faster he could have saved the bunny…maybe…

Ran turned and walked away from him. "Hey, Ran!" he called after her, one hand suddenly raised, but she did not hear him. Instead, she walked to a huge tree only a few meters away and sat down underneath it.

His hand lowered again. He slowly followed and sat down next to her on the ground in front of the tree. He looked to his side, glancing at her face. She was trying hard to hold her tears back, as much he could see. But other than that she said nothing, simply stared at her feet with the most miserable expression he had ever seen and that made something in his chest tighten.

"Ran…" he started, suddenly wishing she would start screaming. For some reason, it was a lot easier to deal with her anger than her sadness. "I am so sorry!"

"No, don't be. You helped me find it, thank you for that!" she tried to smile but failed.

As he said nothing, she went on. "You know, it was my favorite toy and…my mum gave it to me as she…w-went away and I…sort of held on to it in the hope they'd make up and get back together, and now it's gone…" She didn't know if she was talking about her bunny or her hopes.

"No!" his forcefulness made her head shoot up and look at him. "Don't lose your hope, Ran, never! This was just a toy; you are strong even without it!"

Although she did not understand it, his words back then had had a very soothing effect on her and since that day she knew that she was not alone and that Shinichi was one of her best friends, no matter how often he enraged her.

His words had helped her believe in her own power and cope with this loss. Grateful for everything he had done, she smiled at him, making his own cheeks darken a bit. Ran found it adorable.

The next day, a Saturday, he had come over to her to give her a little gift wrapped up in a simple piece of tissue paper. She had looked at it more than surprised, blinked her big eyes a few times, and then looked at his red face. She had counted on everything, just not on this. He had blushed badly when giving her the gift and now urged her to open it.

Inside, there was a little keychain in the shape of a little, white, plastic bunny. Ran was so touched upon seeing it that she sprung forward and hugged Shinichi tightly. He blushed even deeper but to not destroy the point he was trying to make –the comforting her, hugged her back a little clumsily.

Ran looked at the substitute in her hands and couldn't help but grin.

It was later, through a chat between Shinichi's mom and her own, that she had found out that he had spend all his pocket money, which he had collected to buy a new detective novel, trying to get this bunny out of the automatic machine filled with little toys for kids that stood in the arcade.

And this fact touched Ran even more than the key-chain alone. She had promised to herself to be a little nicer to Shinichi ever since. Luckily, it hadn't taken much trying for her. Ok, not too much.

She grinned inwardly.

"Ran?" his gentle voice tore her out of her thoughts.

"Yes?" she answered, smiling at him even more warmly.

He gulped down the knot that had suddenly appeared in his throat. "Do you…" he looked up high and she followed his gaze. "Do you like the Ferris wheel?"

She grinned at him. "Yeah!"

"Want to go?" one corner of his lips lifted, her grin letting him feel more confident about this.

"Yes!" Ran simply answered, beaming at him with a song in her heart and his hand in hers as he lead the way.

---

"Wow!" a happy girl's voice echoed through the small cabin.

"Yeah!" a male voice answered.

"This is soooo beautiful!" Ran was looking out of the windows, down at the park that was now lit since night had fallen on them. Lights could be seen everywhere, one stall swimming in even more colors than the last. Everything was shimmering and blinking, shining and glistering. The light reflected in her big eyes that were as delighted as those of any child would have been in her situation.

Eventually she settled back down on her seat next to Shinichi, smiling at him. "Everything's so beautiful!"

He grinned back. "You stated that already!"

"Well, it's the truth! And like an oh-so great–tantei likes to say, there is only one truth, right?"

He grinned stupidly at her. "You're right!"

Both chuckled. The atmosphere was pleasant and light and, hugging her bunny to her chest, she leaned a little against him, shyly.

He laid an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to his body. Shinichi, too, felt relaxed to the limits. The only thing that disturbed him a little was that she was hugging the bunny and not him. He grimaced at his own little joke although he knew it spoke of the truth.

All of a sudden, he started wondering if there was anything he could do to catch her complete, undivided attention. In the process he looked at her, from top to toe, feeling his heart start overflowing with his devotion for this woman. She simply WAS the most beautiful being he had ever seen, period. And for the first time in a long while, Shinichi turned his brain off.

He rubbed her back leisurely with his hand and pressed her a little tighter to himself, shyly looking into her eyes. But then, as he saw her smile a bright, beautiful smile at him, he knew he had nothing to worry about and suddenly a decision was made. He decided, since he could not tell her how he felt, to show her instead. Show her what she meant to him in a most intimate way. A touch that you only shared with a person very close to you.

Hesitantly, he leaned his face closer to hers, secretly expecting her to turn away from him every second. But she did not, although she saw him approach clearly. She only blushed and looked deeply back in his eyes.

When he was only a few inches away from her lips, Shinichi felt her lean in closer and that was the only encouragement that he needed. None the less, his uncertainty won and he gave her a sweet peek on her cheek, and then pulled back a bit to look at her, still shyly.

Ran only smiled brightly at him and returned the gesture, giving him, in turn, a kiss on his cheek. Only, she did not pull away but stayed close to him. Her cheek was against his, sharing warmth, closeness and their combined affection. She rubbed it against his and turned her head a little, bringing their lips even closer, their breaths mingling.

Their heads moved closer with unstoppable certainty. As their lips finally touched for the very first time, their heads jerked away in shock, a second later. With flushed faces, they stared at each other, both feeling like they had crossed a line but neither knew if that was okay with the other.

However, this little misunderstanding was quickly solved by the look in their eyes. A slight smile later, he closed the short distance again and literary melted against her smooth lips. He could almost feel her contented sigh as she leaned closer to him. Kissing Shinichi was even better than she had ever dreamt of. And though she didn't know it, he was thinking the same thing about her, both indescribably happy that one of their dreams was coming true that very instant.

A pleasant while later they gently broke apart and looked at each other, blushing. But as a small smile crept on his lips -he couldn't hide it anymore since inside he was beaming- she relaxed more and returned it immediately. Ran leaned closer against him and placed her head on his chest, closing her eyes as she cuddled deeper into his embrace. Shinichi rested his chin on top of her head and held her closer.

Both sighed out, entirely and completely content.

"This was so nice!" Ran thought. She blushed badly as she realized that she had said that out loud, turning her head a little to hide against his chest. To her surprise, Shinichi, without thinking about it, answered right away.

"Yeah, it was. I can't believe I never did this before!" he whispered while his heart was beating in his ears, his hand rubbing still slowly over her back.

"Then... why don't you do it again." Ran challenged shyly, unconscious of her words but they had left her lips before she could control them._ 'Not that I want to'_, she thought as she saw Shinichi grin and lean again down to her before they melted against the other.

The ride ended way too soon.

As they stepped out of the cabin and took a few steps, he wound one of his arms around her shoulder protectively while his other hand was in his pocket in the usual, cool manner that was uniquely his.

Ran smiled up at him happily and leaned against his side.

"What do you want to do now? Are you hungry?"

"No, actually it's getting pretty late and…oh no!"

Suddenly, Ran remembered something and looked at her wristwatch. She was almost shocked at the time and quickly turned to Shinichi.

"Come, quickly!" she took his hand and gently directed him in direction of the little hill in the park. "The fireworks are going to go off soon! Hurry!"

Shinichi did not answer, just smile and let himself being dragged away. Actually, his smile said more than any answer consisting of words could ever hope for.

On a small hill she stopped and looked around. "This spot is nice. You have the perfect view at the firework and it's…" Ran blushed. "Nice." She quickly turned and sat down, turning her face a moment away from Shinichi. Luckily she'd been able to hold back the "secluded". But it was true, there were bushes all around the place, big trees and small ones and on their way they had passed _some_ couples that had been cuddling or even making out a little which had them both blushing.

"Yeah, it's nice!" Shinichi agreed and sat down next to her, oblivious to her thoughts.

As the music started, they looked up in time to see the first play of light on the dark sky.

"Ohhh!" Ran and Shinichi said simultaneously.

The fireworks that went off in time with the music were beautiful, in every color one could imagine, in every shape one could imagine.

Soon, Shinichi lay back, his arms behind his head and observed the fireworks. His neck had started to hurt from all the staring up. Beside him, Ran looked at him for a moment, before lying down as well, her head pillowed on his chest comfortably. She looked again at him a little shyly but he only smiled warmly down at her, reassuring her in the process. A soft smile played on her lips. Then she turned her attention back to the night's sky.

Right now I feel - just like a leaf on a breeze  
Who knows where it's blowin'  
Who knows where it's goin'  
I find myself somewhere I - I never thought I'd be  
Going round in circles  
Thinking about you and me  
How do I explain it when I don't know what to say  
What do I do now - so much has changed

Nothing I have ever known - has made me feel this way  
Nothing I have ever seen - has made me want to stay  
but here I am - ready for you  
I'm turnin', I'm fallin' - I hear my home callin'  
Hey - I've never felt somethin so strong - oh no  
It's like nothing I've ever known

Now you're the one I'm looking for  
You're the one I need  
You're the one that gives me - a reason to believe  
Following a star - has lead to where you are  
It feels so strong now - this can't be wrong now

"See, I told you this is going to be fun." Ran turned her head and looked in his eyes. She could see the fireworks reflecting in them.

"Yeah, it is." Shinichi looked at her, able to watch the fireworks reflected in her eyes.

"Aren't those fireworks absolutely beautiful?" She looked up again. But Shinichi did not avert his eyes from her as he replied.

"Absolutely."

She looked back at him, seeing that he was obviously talking about her. Ran blushed badly as she self-consciously lifted a hand to brush a bang behind her ear. Then she laid her flat hand on his chest and turned on her side, towards him.

"It's perfect." Ran whispered, looking deeply in his eyes still.

"Yeah. It is." Shinichi replied, holding the eye contact.

Ever so slowly, he bent his head down a little while Ran was turning hers from the spot where it was still resting on his chest. They kissed slowly, comfortably, lingeringly.

Nothing I have ever known - has made me feel this way  
Nothing I have ever seen - has made me want to stay  
but here I am - ready for you  
I'm turnin', I'm fallin' - I hear my home callin'  
Hey - I've never felt somethin's so strong - oh no  
It's like nothing I've ever known

---

Shinichi was walking Ran home, hand in hand. They were engaged in quiet conversation and still feeling kind of light-headed from the earlier events but as they came to a halt in front of Ran's house, they became quiet. Reality crept its way back unpleasantly and they looked almost lost at each other, not knowing what to do or what to say.

They both knew what they wanted to do. No matter how much they yearned to stay together, and definitely not part, maybe even sleep cuddled together, they both knew that they had no actual reason to do so anymore, unless they admitted their complete feelings for the other. Unfortunately, both were way too shy to admit it or voice it, let alone act on it. Anyway, it suddenly became too much for one night.

That's why they could do nothing but wish each other goodnight in front of the dark detective agency. Ran looked up for a moment. _'I wonder where Dad is.'_

"Ran?" Shinichi spoke up. He couldn't stand the silence anymore and before he knew it her name had rolled over his tongue. Great. There she was, glancing at him, expecting him to keep talking and he didn't know what to say.

_'Come on, you great tantei. You can think of something, can't you? Just look into her eyes and tell me you can't think of anything to tell her. Hopeless fool.' _

_'Oh, let me be!' _Shinichi argued back.

"Ran, I…" the anticipation in her beautiful eyes robbed him for a second of any thought he had had and any plans as to what to tell her. There was no helping it, he had to improvise. For a moment he considered telling her everything; maybe about Conan, or about Holmes (just to lighten the tension) but definitely about his feelings. He really wished he could tell her how much she meant to him and not worry about her being kidnapped or killed or in any other kind in danger.

But he could never be sure as long as the Organization was still managing its affairs out there. It was not as easy as one would think, admitting your love for a person, especially when you had no idea for how long your adult body was still yours. And, Ran deserved so much more…so much better than that.

"It was a great idea, that little trip. I had a lot of fun today. Thank you!"

Ran smiled, almost relieved, at him. "I did too, had a lot of fun. Thank you, too." She held her new bunny closer.

"W-well, then I…I guess this is goodnight, ne?" he chuckled nervously, thus making the sound that came out sound strange.

"Y-yeah!"

Their hearts were racing it each other, beating strongly against their ribcages. The nervousness transformed to tension, a sort of electricity that could almost be seen with the bare eye. Shinichi looked, one could say stared, at Ran and she looked right back, feeling something draw her to him like a magnet. Shinichi could feel it too, tingling all of his nerve endings.

Hesitantly, he took a step closer to her. Ran gulped inaudibly. Still and slowly, his arms moved upwards to come around her body. A little tense herself, Ran moved a step forward to hug back the guy in front of her the best she could with her one free hand. They couldn't help the smile that crawled to their faces at the warm, soothing contact.

Suddenly, as they tenderly held each other there in the dim light of the street-lighting, the world was all right; no bad, threatening thing existed.

Suddenly, there existed no harm, absolutely nothing to worry about.

Suddenly, the world was in complete peace.

Both seemed unwilling to let go until at last Shinichi drew back a little bit. He looked down in her eyes again, holding the all-consuming eye contact that made him forget about everything. Nervously and with little jerking motions, he moved his head down and towards her. Ran, who understood what he had in mind, blushed but stood on her tiptoes to meet his lips with hers.

Their mechanical, robot-like moves caused Shinichi to bump his forehead against Ran's. Both jerked away, looking at each other with surprise. Ran had to giggle and Shinichi grinned and both were happy to see that neither was willing to stop. So, they moved towards each other again, clumsily trying to catch the lips of their opponent but at first, both turned to the left which made them bump their foreheads again, although only a little and their noses, and then both turned to the right, same procedure.

They took their total clumsiness with humour, grinning again at each other. Shinichi lifted a hand to cup her cheek, stroking with his thumb over it. Ran smiled beautifully up at him and he brought her face that he was still cupping with his hand, towards his slowly, this time catching her lips with ease.

It was thrilling, yet again. He could not imagine that he would ever quit liking to kiss her, or quit feeling as excited as he was now.

Only afterwards they would realize that this had been their very first good-night-kiss and that it really had everything both had ever dreamt of.

Shinichi pulled back after some time, looking with a contented smile down at her happy face. Seeing her so happy made his heart jump in joy. This is all he ever wanted, to see her this happy. Not knowing how her hand came to be in his (and not caring either, by the way), he stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Good night" he whispered, so as to not ruin the mood and magic of the moment.

"Good night," she whispered back, beaming at him with shimmering eyes.

Regretfully, he let go of her hand and slowly started to walk away, smiling a last time back at her.

Ran smiled back and watched him walk away until he disappeared in the shadows.

---

Later that night Ran and Shinichi were lying in their beds, both trying to fall asleep but all their endeavours were in vain. They had been so tired at the beginning and now lay in their beds, not being able to fall asleep.

Their night so far had been full of anxiety and they kept tossing and turning. Morpheus simply refused to pay them a visit.

_'God, the bed still smells of Shinichi…'_ Ran thought, her head buried in her pillow, feeling like a teenager in love.

_'Well, aren't you one?'_ a distant but nagging voice in the back of her mind asked her.

"Oh, be quiet!" she told her mind.

Shinichi in turn, was lying on his back, his hands crossed under his head and staring at the ceiling. He, too, was wondering about what happened and what was going to happen, feeling all of a sudden unsure himself.

A million things swirled around Shinichi's and Ran's minds. Interestingly, most of their thoughts matched, but they would never know that.

_'What's going to happen tomorrow?'_ Shinichi wondered frankly. _'Will she-'_

_'-will he be the same?'_ Ran feared. _'Or will he be-' _

_'-will she be completely changed?' _

_'Will his feelings change?' _

_'Will she still feel the same?' _

_'Does he have regrets?' _

_'I hope she doesn't regret anything!' _

_'I wonder what he is doing and-' _

_'-if she's asleep already…' _

_'How I miss him!' _

_'I miss her already!' _

_'I'd really like to have him…' _

_'…to have her here. Oh these feelings…' _

_'…they're really…' _

_'…it's really…' _

_'…amazing.'_

_'We didn't even make plans for tomorrow.'_ Ran realized.

_'I am so stupid!'_ Shinichi slapped his forehead.

Ran's face softened. _'But what an enchanting…' _

_'…absolutely brilliant day!'_ Shinichi grinned.

Suddenly, while Ran absent-mindedly traced her lips with one finger, reminiscing of the day, Shinichi, completely sunk in his thoughts, remembered something, too.

**_'Oh my god, I kissed him!' _**

****

**_'Oh my god, I kissed her!'_**

Both thought and simultaneously blushed a bright shade of red.

_'I never thought it could be like this with him…' _

_'…or else I'd have kissed her before, while I still had the opportunity to.'_

_'I wonder if he's going to do it again…'_ Ran blushed.

_'I hope she lets me do it again!'_ Shinichi hoped.

_'But what if he didn't like it or…' _

_'…or if I wasn't any good?'_

_'Oh no!'_ both thought, again, simultaneously. They shook their heads, trying to clear out their minds. Eventually they came up with an answer. It was not worth it, thinking about possible 'what-if's' now. What's going to happen is going to happen, end of story.

Shinichi looked around his room. _'I better try to get some sleep or-' _

_'…or I will look horrible tomorrow!'_ Ran pinched her cheeks a little and traced with a finger along the underside of her eyes.

Both young adults turned around, hugging their pillows and closed their eyes. Sighing out long and deep, through all their longing for the other, they couldn't help but smile at the beautiful day they had spend together.

_'I hope we can repeat that.'_ Ran thought, closing her eyes slowly.

_'I will make sure we can spend the rest of our lives together, I promise. Some day…'_ Shinichi in turn closed his eyes.

They turned to the other side.

"Oh Shinichi." Ran breathed.

"Oh Ran."

_'I hope he's still going to be here tomorrow.' _

_'I hope I won't turn back tonight.'_ Horrified at the thought alone, Shinichi quickly send a little prayer to the heavens.

Ran snuggled deeper in her bed, feeling consoled at the thought of him.

"Good night, Shinichi."

"Good night, Ran," he breathed.

And they shut their brains down, finally being able to drift to sleep peacefully.


	3. Unexpected visit

_Thanks to those who review! You keep me going, guys! The song from the last Chapter was "Nothing I've ever known" by Bryan Adams. Please enjoy this chapter and don't forget to visit my new homepage for there are some very interesting votes going on. You don't want to miss this, believe me._

* * *

**Unexpected visit**

* * *

The next morning, after a horrible night's rest, they woke up almost at the same time thanks to an uneasy sleep and as soon as their eyes were open and their brains started functioning, Ran and Shinichi jumped out of their beds, got dressed and left the house in a hurry, meaning to go and see the other as soon as it was in their might. Little did they think about wrong timing or any kind of consequences. The only thing that mattered was to see the other again and that as soon as possible.

With strongly beating hearts, each of our two young adults hurried along the well-known roads to the house of the other, only one goal in mind. Panting a little, they came to an abrupt halt after turning around a corner and running into one another.

"Oh, I am so sorry, Mister!" Ran blushed and bowed in apology.

"No, it was my fault." Shinichi replied and pulled away a little. "I really am so-…Ran?"

Her head shot up as she immediately recognized his voice. "Shinichi?"

They blinked a few times, the reality about what has just happened slowly sinking in. Three seconds later, both started laughing, the situation simply holding too much irony.

"What are you-?" both said at once and fell silent. Then they chuckled a little, realizing that both had rosy cheeks by now.

"Good morning!" she smiled politely at him and, as he realized, her whole body seemed a little tense.

"Morning!"

Both just stood there, looking at the ground between them, his hands in his pockets, hers folded in front of her, unsure about what to do next. The funny thing is that both knew exactly what they wanted to do but neither dared to act on it since they didn't knew how the other was feeling about the previous evening.

It was Ran who broke the ice. "How…how did you sleep?"

"Uhm, I…" He weighed out if it was worth it telling her the truth and decided on it. Firstly, it would be too funny to see how she reacts and secondly…he didn't want to lie to her anymore. He was sick and tired of it. "Actually pretty bad. How about you?"

After a few seconds, she just giggled loudly and nodded. "Same here!"

Ran and Shinichi stared in each others eyes for what seemed like an eternity, the mood around them having changed drastically and they knew it. The intense eye contact never broke, even as she made a tiny step towards him. Finally, she found her voice back and whispered.

"Shinichi, I…"

He grinned at her, suddenly knowing exactly how she was feeling. As an answer, he simply held his arms open and two seconds later she was in their circle. The two young lovebirds clung to each other tightly as if there wasn't going to be any new mornings, ever.

And it was then, at this exact moment, that both could feel it again. The same feeling of bliss, and contentment and happiness and love as they had felt yesterday. This was where both always wanted to be. What both always wanted to feel. The reason they couldn't stand being apart for long.

"I missed you!" she whispered against his chest where she now hid her flaming head a little deeper than before.

One of his hands came up to stroke her hair tenderly. "So did I!"

"I am surprised but so glad that you are still here. That you didn't go back to that case of yours!" she all of a sudden exclaimed, pulling slightly back to stare in his eyes.

"Yeah, so am I…" he answered her truthfully. He had half expected to be transformed as he woke up this morning and it had shocked him, in a way, to find himself still grown-up.

With all the tension that had eaten him up this morning gone, he could feel the slight stinging feeling in his stomach being replaced by another stinging feeling. Shinichi blushed and Ran only giggled as both heard his stomach growl.

"What are we going to do now?" he asked her hopefully. Just at this moment his stomach growled again and although he looked a little embarrassed, joined her in her giggling this time. The happiness at the fact that he obviously wanted to spend the day with her made her heart beat just a little bit faster, which was, by the way, more than enough to pump more blood in her head which, in turn, lead to a slight light-headedness that was feeling oh so good,.

"How about breakfast and then…don't know…something else?"

"Like?"

"Uhm… Maybe…Remember that beach-adventure center we used to go to? How about going to swim there, like in old times?"

"Sounds good to me!

"So, since we're closer to your house, we could go back, get your swimming stuff and go for breakfast at my place! What do you say?"

"What about you father, won't he-"

"He didn't return yet. Seems like this case of his is taking him much longer."

It was costing Shinichi lots of his acting talent to pretend that he had no idea why that was the case.

"Let's do that then!"

She smiled brightly at him after reluctantly pulling away from his embrace, and instead had him hold her hand. Shinichi smiled back at her simply because he couldn't help it. It was not only because she was the most beautiful being he had ever seen and no matter how many times he thought it, it would still be true. No, not only because of that.

It's simply because, when you are happy, really happy from the depths of your heart, it shows right through you. That's why Ran was looking so irresistible and that's why he was smiling more often than usual.

For when Ran was happy, truly happy, that was all that Shinichi needed to be happy himself.

---

Having arrived at his house ten minutes ago, he was almost done packing his things. Apparently something was still missing, for he hurried up the stairs, telling her he'd be right back.

After five minutes, Ran started feeling uneasy. It was not like she didn't trust Shinichi; on the contrary, she'd lay her life in his hands, as she has already done so many times, without thinking twice about it. She just couldn't stand being apart from him if it wasn't absolutely necessary. That's why, after another three minutes with no sign from him, she started ascending the stairs in the middle of the huge house.

As she entered his room carefully, not wanting to catch him in a compromising situation, her eyes fell immediately upon his crouching figure. He was kneeling in front of his open closet and concentrating hard on some items that were spread out in front of him. Very slowly her head appeared over his shoulder but he was too absorbed in the problem at hand to notice her right away.

Her head moved forward next to his and after a moment she very tenderly puckered her lips and pressed a sweet kiss on his cheek. "The blue one!" was all that she said.

Ran, with her cheeks rosy, stood up and observed amused the blushing boy in front of her who was looking surprised. He quickly, without another word, reached one hand out to grab the blue swimming-trunks, shoving the rest back in his closet.

She giggled to herself. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah!" he nodded, pushing the last garment in his bag. "Let's go!" Shinichi held his free hand out for her. She took it with a smile and together they left his house and started walking over to her own, the anticipation of the wonderful day that lay in front of them swirling like a million butterflies around their stomachs and making both feel almost giddy.

---

As Ran and Shinichi arrived at the detective agency hand in hand, they'd have counted on everything. They'd counted on encountering Kogoro on the street, waiting for his daughter to return and for his chance to murder Shinichi, on the agency burning down (the fire set by people Kogoro had helped send to jail, and so on). Even on the whole mini-detective bunch. Heck, and maybe even with some parents they seldom saw like Eri or Yukiko. Like we said, they'd counted on everything; except with what they actually found.

Only a few feet away, they heard familiar voices arguing about something.

"You are impossible!"

"What?"

A slight pause.

"HATTORI HEIJI, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!"

Ran and Shinichi shared a look that said more than words could have said. Then they crossed the last feet towards the bottom of the stairs to the agency where they already saw their friends from Osaka, Heiji sitting on the stairs, Kazuha standing in front of him. They were fighting, which as fact alone was less of a surprise than their actually being here.

"Kazuha-chan?"

Kazuha turned around and as she spotted her friend, turned away from Heiji and half-ran to her. The two girls hugged.

"What a nice surprise! What are you doing here?"

"I thought, since you were sick a few days back that I better show up and look after you but you look a lot better to me!" Kazuha pulled back and looked at her friend from tip to toe. It was then that her eyes spotted the slightly blushing young man behind her who had both his hands in his pockets. He waved at her with a tiny motion. "Hi!"

"H-hello!" Kazuha blinked back, the surprise about his presence still apparent as she gaped at him.

Heiji now stepped out of the entrance and saw Ran who was standing behind Kazuha. He raised a hand to wave at her in greeting.

"Hi, Neechan, how are you?"

"Hello! Fine, thank you. How about you?"

"Fine. Just starving…" he knew he'd get a glare from Kazuha for this one and he was right. But he chose to ignore that annoying woman for now. Instead, he walked past her without another word. "And where's the little on-" Heiji stopped……

"You mean Conan-kun? He's at the Professor's but guess who I brought with me!"

Ran stepped aside and Shinichi came into view completely. He smiled a little oddly at the pair, waving with his hand a little. Kazuha's eyes widened in delight and Heiji's chin only dropped open with a clinging noise.

"Kudo-kun!" Kazuha exclaimed still delighted.

"Hi guys!"

"What the…" Heiji murmured to himself, trying to keep his eyes from falling out or simply bulging to the point of pain. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again to see if he was still standing there. He was. So, no ghost. Ok, so it was not like ghosts existed, but still…

What the hell…?

_'Calm down, Hattori, calm yourself down, man. Take deep breaths. I am sure this has a reasonable explanation. Nothing at all to get worked up about, really.'_ he tried to tell himself, closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before opening them again and looked at Shinichi in a calm way. Three seconds passed until…

"Kudo, what the hell are YOU doing here?!!" Heiji yelled at him from the top of his lungs.

_'Oh well, harder than I thought, this staying calm-thing.' _

"H-hello Hattori, nice seeing you, **too**!" Shinichi grinned at the outraged detective in front of him.

"Don't you start this hello Hattori-shit with me!" Heiji screamed He suddenly became aware of the glares of the two girls next to them. He then cracked a forced smile at them and pulled Shinichi aside by his elbow. "I want an explanation!" he whispered fiercely.

"I'll tell you later." Shinichi whispered back.

Heiji didn't look convinced at all and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Certainly he would have started arguing, loudly and mercilessly, if not for the presence of the girls. So he simply stared at Shinichi.

"Why have you been screami- I mean, what have you been discussing before we came?" Ran asked her friend carefully.

"Uhm…nothing, really!" Kazuha smiled, trying to look completely innocent.

What really had happened… 

_"There they are!" _

_"Thank god, I am starving!" _

_"Heiji!" _

_"What?" he knew that he maybe wasn't the most tactful person on the planet but his stomach was growling so loudly that he honestly did not care about such things right now. _

_"You are impossible!" _

_"What?" _

_"We are here to visit, not to eat all their supplies. All you ever think about is your stomach!" _

_"Oh really?" he growled at her playfully, reminding her vividly that he was very well capable of having other things in his mind, which caused Kazuha to blush badly and scream even louder. _

_"HATTORI HEIJI, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" _

_That was the moment when they heard Ran's voice. _

"Really, Ran-chan. Nothing at all!" Kazuha kept smiling strangely at Ran who didn't say anything about it although she did not believe her.

"Let's go inside and have breakfast, what do you say?" Ran politely asked the small group.

"Sure!" Kazuha answered.

Heiji was still too occupied with staring at Shinichi that he didn't respond at all and that had Kazuha worry for a moment. Here was Ran, offering food to him and he didn't even pay attention? Something was definitely wrong!

"I can't believe you, why the hell didn't you-" Heiji hissed.

"I told you I will tell you later!" Shinichi interrupted him in a low voice.

Heiji opened his mouth but never got a chance to reply.

"Why don't we go upstairs first?" Ran offered a little louder and gently nudged the little group up the stairs, having become aware of the people on the street staring at them. Yes, our sweet and innocent one could be very convincing at times.

---

Inside, the little group of four people was gathered in the kitchen, helping out with the breakfast since they were all starving.

"I thought they had food on those flights!" Shinichi commented.

Heiji's eyes narrowed and he took Shinichi aside with an "excuse us for a moment".

He spun him around and a staring contest began. Out of nowhere, Heiji reached out and pinched his cheek, hard.

"OW!" Shinichi screamed, rubbing his slightly throbbing cheek while using his best scandalized expression on Heiji. "What did you do that for?"

The dark-skinned man only smiled, already feeling like he had gotten a little of his revenge.

"I just had to make sure, you know." Shinichi immediately understood. He had told Heiji about those times Kid had dressed up as himself, so it was only logical that he was to check it. But the knowledge didn't make Shinichi glare less at Heiji. "Yoouuu-"

"Would you explain yourself now?"

"Hattori, I told you I will-"

"What are you guys doing?" the girls peeked around the corner.

Both guys immediately turned to smile completely innocently at them.

"Nothing!" Heiji spat out quickly.

"Really!" Shinichi added.

"Is that so!?" Ran raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. You know, it's been so long since I have last seen my good friend here!" Heiji patted Shinichi on his back rather hard. The latter choked a bit and turned left to glare at him. But Heiji completely ignored him. "So, I just thought that a little…guy talk would be in order!"

"Oh. Well, you have still time for that later. The breakfast is ready!" Ran left them alone.

Shinichi spun around to his friend. "Guy talk?"

Said friend stared back unashamed. "As if you've had a better idea …!"

"So, later it is?"

"Yes." Shinichi assured him as they re-entered the kitchen.

The girls were already waiting on the table. As soon as the guys saw the food, everything, including possible quarrels-they have already forgotten about them at the sight.

Almost automatically, Shinichi sat down next to Ran. Hey, don't laugh; this urge for closeness could be unbearable if you are deprived of it for so long!

The guys almost fell face-first in the food, stuffing their mouths with the delicious food. Ran smiled.

_'Some things never changed!'_ She was vividly reminded of all those times that she had watched Shinichi eat with abandon and was glad for this little piece of normality.

Come to think of it, he reminded her a little on Conan. He was eating her meals with equal pleasure. _'I wonder if he is all right!'_

Opposite of her, Kazuha was grinning as well. She lost counting of all the times she had seen Heiji eat like this. _'Honestly, this guy has a black hole instead of a stomach!'_

Then she turned to look at Shinichi who was almost the exact reflection of her childhood friend and grinned wider. _'Then again, if I look at Kudo-kun, it certainly could have something to do with his line of work'._

The girls talked with each other over the slurping noises the guys made. Here and there one of them would add something through their mouth-full of food. Really, sometimes it appeared like even brothers couldn't be more alike.

"So, what are the plans?" Kazuha asked happily.

"Huh? What plans?"

Ran earned herself a knowing grin from her friend. "Kudo-kun's and your plans, of course! Don't tell me he just came back and you are completely clueless about what to do?!"

"Oh, you mean _plans_…" Ran blushed, looking down at her hands. "W-well, we do have plans… we wanted to go swimming and…" she stopped because she didn't know what else to add to that statement.

"That's great! Why don't we go together? We four? Heiji and I wanted to swim after visiting you anyway, at this beach-alike thingy you crazy Tokyo-people have, so we have our stuff handy. What do you say?"

Ran looked at Kazuha with big eyes, weighting the ups and down of her proposal. On the one hand, it may be safer to be four but on the other hand, it was also nice being alone… But Kazuha's expression clearly showed that the decision was already made.

That's why, an hour later, Ran found herself with her friends in front of a huge building with even huger windows and an open roof.

* * *

_So? What do you think? Please review, remembering that you certainly do want a satisfying next chapter (finally, the "swimming fun"), don't you? Hehehe... Oh, and don't I get any credits for bringing Heiji (and Kazuha of course) into this?? God, he (that perv) is just so much fun to tease, muahahaha..._


	4. Swimming fun

**Chapter ten – Swimming fun**

* * *

The girls and boys separated after entering the beach-alike swimming bath, going to the separate changing rooms.

As expected, the boys were done way sooner than the girls and that's why they were forced to wait for them. So, they sat down and waited…

In the girls locker room the atmosphere was light and cheery. The girls were happy to spend some time together after such a long time and were chatting happily about everything and nothing.

"This bikini is so sweet, Kazuha-chan!"

"You think so?"

"Of course! The colors are way cuter than last time. Is it new?"

Kazuha blushed lightly and nodded stiffly. Ran grinned at her friend knowingly.

"Oh, I see! Is this supposed to be a gift for a certain dark-skinned detective?"

As Kazuha's blush deepened, Ran's laughter increased.

"Come on!" Kazuha defended herself. "As if you are any better! Look at that sexy bikini you chose! I bet this had nothing to do with Kudo-kun being here, right?"

Now it was Ran's turn to blush as she stopped laughing. Kazuha chuckled superiorly for a few instances before both girls looked at each other and started giggling simultaneously.

"It's really beautiful, though, Ran. Blue is really nice and I am sure his eyes will fall out!"

Ran blushed but grinned at her friend.

"Say, is the top the same size as the bottom?" Kazuha asked out of nowhere.

"No, it's two sizes bigger since I can not find a bikini, or underwear, in the same size. I either had to get fat to make the bottom fit with the top or lose some inches on the top."

"Yeah, I thought so. I have the same problem, it's horrible. They think women with a little bigger chest have to be fat at the same time. It's horrible!"

"I know! And so stressing when you go shopping!"

"Yeah, you are right. But sometimes you are lucky. Oh, I know this one shop where…"

---

The picture of our great detectives was one where you wished everything you had to have a camera on you so you could take a picture and hang it on your wall to always look at it and laugh your ass off. That's how the girls would describe it had they seen the guys just yet.

On a little, low stone-wall, they were sitting next to each other, both full-packed with all sort of things, a mutual expression of doom and despair on their faces as they literary hang there, waiting in silence. Not to mention their lowered shoulders and heads that seemed unnaturally for them. Had they been inside a comic or cartoon, both would have been covered with cobwebs.

"They're taking forever, again!" Heiji complained after some time, being clad in green boxers that were also for swimming.

"Are girls always like that?" Shinichi asked him, not bothering to move to look at him, clad in blue swimming trunks.

"Yes, pal. Some things will simply never change." Heiji spoke, sounding like an old, wise monk with tons of experience, thus making the picture of them look more ridiculous.

Shinichi groaned as if in pain but preferred to keep silent, just this once.

"Anyway, I believe you still owe me an explanation." Heiji went on.

"Well, it's not a big deal of a story. Ai gave me an experimental pill that she was working on…" Shinichi told him quickly about the possible effects of this one pill he had taken quite some time ago. "…So what I think is that because of this cold, the pill delayed its effect. I honestly have no idea why and how this worked out this way, really."

"So, you might stay like this permanently?"

"I guess."

"You could change back at any moment then?"

"Highly possible."

"And this might even kill you, right?"

"I…I haven't thought about it too much but I know that is an option as well, so, yes."

"Oi, Kudo, you really are some trouble."

"It's not like I am doing this on purpose!" Shinichi shot back, folding his arms in front of his chest.

The dark-skinned boy sighed comically. "You'd think somebody with my line of work would prefer to have normal friends in daily life…"

Shinichi didn't respond, only glare at him and Heiji chuckled. "But, let me get this straight. You kind of came back and immediately went to Neechan, right?"

"Uhm…yes…" Shinichi answered with hesitation. He didn't like the tone of Heiji's voice at all and had the feeling this was only the beginning of something huger.

"And you have been there and with her for the last, almost complete two days?" His fat grin could tell of all the naughty things that Heiji was thinking right now.

"Y-yes but that does not mean that…" But Shinichi was immediately cut off by his friend who wasn't really listening to him.

"Oh please, are you going to tell me you caught her cold because you kept looking at her through her window?"

Shinichi blushed brightly, opened his mouth, even managed to move it but no sound came out. His friend (not that he would call him "friend' right now) grinned and went on.

"No wonder you didn't call ME, you were too busy doing naughty things with your _girlfriend_." Heiji teased him, playfully poking him in his ribs with an elbow. "Come on, at least tell your good old friend how far you've gotten already, you sly dog."

'Oh my god, what did I ever do to deserve this!" Shinichi groaned and still blushed badly.

---

When the girls finally did come out of the dressing rooms and called to their boys, they turned around to face them.

"Finally you two have made i-" both detectives said like out of one voice. The interesting thing was not that both stopped in mid-sentence but that both stopped at the same word, as well.

But this miracle was easy to explain, for, as the girls stepped outside in the light, it was not only Heiji and Shinichi whose chins dropped.

Ran was wearing a blue bikini-combo with pink dots on both parts. While the top had two thin strings that started in the middle-part and wound around her neck, the bottoms had pretty slip-knots on either side. It was really beautiful yet playful, and fit perfectly on Ran's slim body.

Kazuha's choice was a pink bikini-combo with big, white–and-red cherry blossoms all over it. The top wound around the neck but had the fastener, which was a slip-knot, in the middle of her breasts, matching the one on the left side of her bikini-bottoms.

To sum it up, all there is to say to the picture they presented was that they looked breath-taking and every one with eyes in their heads could see it. Quite obviously since all the guys in reach had turned around to stare at them. This was the reason that our now concerned detectives both stepped forward towards them, both stunned to silence, both blushing a bit; Shinichi more than Heiji, though. But not to claim them, nooo. Simply to…protect them. Cough cough.

"We are sorry we made you worry!" Kazuha said, pretending to have noticed nothing about the whole situation. Although there was a certain satisfaction in her features that she couldn't hide.

"I-it was nothing…" Shinichi answered for he did not trust Heiji's mouth. Indeed, his darker-skinned friend next to him must be thinking the same. He was visibly tense and Shinichi even saw how he was biting his lip for a few long moments. But both knew that all the waiting had been very well worth it.

"Then let's go!" Kazuha started pulling Ran's arm towards the big outdoor-pool, walking past the guys who turned and followed them without another word. Just like they took their things and carried them after the girls, too, without saying anything.

As they passed by the guys, a blushing Shinichi could have sworn he heard Kazuha say something to Ran that sounded suspiciously like a: "See, I told you he'd lose it when seeing you in this piece. He could hardly keep his eyes off you!"

Ran had blushed at her words, only fumbling with her hands in front of her. "Kazuha-chan!" she had even tried to sound scandalized, though deep inside she enjoyed the feeling. She'd always wanted for Shinichi to notice her a little more as a woman and to like her looks as well. It pleased her incredibly to know that she was able to make him stutter this easily and that he liked what he saw. She didn't know why she liked it, though. Maybe because you care more what the people close and important to you think of you.

Shinichi blushed, not knowing if he was to curse women or thank God for them. Difficult decision right now, really. How come it was one of their easiest exercises to make them blush and stutter with almost no effort?

Next to him, another idiot. Heiji was nudging him with his elbow in his ribs, the stupid grin on his face clearly visible.

"Come on, don't look like a fish. You have to admit it's even better than last time! You know, with you in your actual body and everything!"

"You are right…" Shinichi answered absentmindedly, not looking at him right away but caught his odd gaze a few moments later. "What is it?"

"I think it'll take some time to get used to you being…like this!" Heiji pointed at Shinichi's body. Said boy was now grinning.

"Yeah, I know what you mean… Takes me a while to adjust every time. Pretty sad, isn't it?"

Heiji only shook his head.

There searched around the huge area for a nice spot in the sand but near the water where they decided to stay and unfolded the blanket.

"Ran-chan, this umbrella is so adorable!" Kazuha pointed at the big sun-umbrella Ran had just given Shinichi so he could put it in the sand. It was white and filled with beautiful, red cherries all over.

"Thank you."

"So, what are we going to do now?" Heiji asked, looking around the people, absentmindedly rubbing over his stomach.

"Are you still hungry?" Kazuha asked him sceptically, raising an eyebrow.

"Just for your information, **no**! I just want to go and swim. What about you two?" he turned away from Kazuha demonstratively, directing his words to Ran and Shinichi who observed the couple with a smug grin, as if expecting them to start fighting in the earnest.

"Actually I…" Shinichi started, looking for a second at Ran and then closed his mouth. She cut in almost right away.

"I think I would enjoy some sun-tanning first."

"M-me too."

Even if Kazuha and Heiji had noticed the lovely blush on their friends, they said nothing about it.

"That's settled then. We'll meet there later!" the dark-skinned boy suggested, pointing at the water.

The others agreed and one minute later Ran and Shinichi were left alone. They exchanged a few shy gazes, smiling and then quickly looking away again. Quite some time passed where neither said a word. Shinichi simply sat down beside her on the blanket and let his gaze trail over the place while thinking about something to say to her and trying not to stare at the gorgeous sight that she presented.

Ran was having a similar problem. As many times as she had seen Shinichi half-naked, she really could not remember him being so…masculine? His chest was well defined and so were his strong arms and she couldn't help but remind her of the previous evening, when he had taken her in his arms tightly. She had felt protected and in ease with the world.

Suddenly, their peaceful thoughts were interrupted by a bunch of little kids that were running around the place. Ran and Shinichi smiled at each other before going back to watching the kids play soundly.

"I wonder what Conan is doing at the moment," she suddenly said. "Maybe we should have taken him with us. You see, he and Hattori-kun are really good friends."

Shinichi gulped without thinking and looked over to the young woman who was now staring at the water. She was obviously feeling a little guilty for letting Conan alone like this and he really couldn't have any of that.

"He's fine. He's having lots of fun playing with his friends, so don't worry."

At her questioning gaze, he grinned his usual, casual grin. "I saw him this morning, you know."

To his relief, Ran did not only believe him but also looked relieved herself at this new piece of information. She graced him with a beautiful, heart-warming smile.

"I am so glad to hear this." She whispered, more to herself than to him.

He smiled at her and a blanket of comfortable silence enveloped them. Both were still a little unsure and didn't know what to say. Ran noticed the burning sun and reached for her bag. She rummaged around it and took a sun-lotion out, starting to cream her legs, chest, stomach and arms.

"Could you…?" Ran blushed, holding the sun-block lotion out for him. She was kneeling right in front of Shinichi, with her back to him.

Automatically, he reached out and took the orange bottle from her hands, acting for once without thinking at all. Only as she, steadily blushing, turned away from him and presented Shinichi her back, he started panicking in the earnest, blushing furiously himself.

He couldn't do this, could he? Not that he hadn't ever dreamt about this, or that he didn't want to. It was simply that…his brain started working hard to find a reasonable reason for him not to comply with her request, but couldn't really come up with one.

_'Could it be that it's simple embarrassment?'_ he asked himself, his ego suddenly reappearing. If it was for embarrassment, then he could beat it. He had to, for he refused to be weaker than such a trivial emotion.

He kneeled down behind her, very slowly, always cautious of where his body was touching hers. She was, after all, still the champion of their school's karate team and he didn't need a new demonstration. He was deeply sunk in concentration and thus it was no wonder that his heart skipped a beat as he realized shocked that Ran was scooting further back and closer to him.

She on the other hand, didn't know why she was doing this. All she knew was that she simply had to be separated from him for too long and that closeness was not only feeling almost way too good to be real but was also a good recipe against wounds of the heart. She knew it was risky for if he jerked away and rejected her she had no idea how she would deal with it.

Thankfully, our blushing detective recovered pretty quickly and he responded by opening his knees a little further to grant her all the space that she wanted. In the end, she was so close he could feel the heat of her skin sweep over his and their legs were touching, his inner-thighs against her outer-thighs. It looked almost like she was sitting on his lap.

While she only blushed badly, the equally red Shinichi gulped, but neither said anything. Instead, he forced his suddenly stiff hands to action, moving them to touch the skin of her shoulders. The moment his fingers made contact, he could have sworn that he felt the electricity was between them for a moment and how it ran up his hands and spread in his whole body with the pace of a lightning bolt. He gulped again and set his hands and mind back to work, gently massaging her skin with the lotion.

"You…you look really nice today!" stuttered Shinichi, his hands carefully rubbing over the skin of her back.

"R-really?" Ran was trying to not let the feeling of his hands on her back get to her but it was impossible. There's no way he, as a detective no less, couldn't have noticed the goose bumps on her skin.

_'Hell, doesn't she see all those guys whose jealous looks threaten to kill me? There's nobody around here who wouldn't kill to change places with me and she asks me if it's true that she looks nice?'_

"Y-yeah!" he replied, trying to sound more firmly then before while his heart was beating in record time.

"Wouldn't you have preferred a red swimming suit?" she asked carefully, looking at her folded hands in her lap. She hadn't meant to ask this but the question (which had been bothering her a bit) had slipped out and now it was too late to take it back.

"Red?" he needed a moment to understand why she was asking this and then smiled.

_'She is thinking I'd like red more because…because red is my favorite color? Gosh, this girl is so sweet!' _

"No, blue is just fine."

"Why are you grinning?" Ran asked him, now totally confused, cheeks burning and she spun around to face him.

"It's nothing!" he murmured quickly, not wanting to ignite her temper and leaned forward to give her a kiss on the tip of her nose. "Now turn around and let me finish, you wild thing."

Ran obeyed, smiling smugly to herself. She went back to enjoy the little fireworks that his hands on her made her feel. Both of them still were red-cheeked and that would probably not change, for they were very well aware of the fact that this was the closest they have been to each other; all in all, both secretly agreed that it was the most erotic thing either had ever experienced.

"Here, all done!" he said proudly after some time, looking at her back.

Ran bit her lip. She had almost said "Oh, already?" in a very disappointed tone. Instead, she turned to him with a beautiful smile. "Thank you!"

"Y-you are welcome." He stuttered, a little more quietly and more shakily than he had meant to.

They were staring in each others eyes and with her turning her head to him, she realized that their faces were only mere inches apart. Her arm was against his chest and she could feel his warmth and his heartbeat, both making her feel a little dizzy. Debating with herself whether or not her next move was a good idea, she sighed and gave up, turning her brain off and telling all her self-doubts to get lost.

She closed her eyes and slowly bent towards him. As Shinichi caught the movement, he quit thinking as well and bent down to meet her halfway in a honey-sweet and feather-light kiss that left them both sighing and lean against the other. He wound his arms around her back and she felt hers go around his neck and torso as she gave herself to this kiss.

After what seemed to have lasted forever, she pulled slowly back, keeping her eyes closed for another moment before slowly opening them. Shinichi then met her unsure gaze and was almost compelled to smile at the shy beauty in his arms.

"I think it's only fair if I return the gesture." She grinned at him and Shinichi grinned back.

As he saw her take the lotion in her hands, he fully expected her to move to his back to start her work and was a little sad about since he didn't want to let go of her. But she squeezed the bottle, put it down, rubbed the lotion between her hands and placed them on his chest, all the while holding the eye contact and staying in the wonderfully strong circle of his arms.

His muscles twitched a little under her hands but he tried his hardest to force his body to not flinch away, successfully. Ran was having lots of fun as she started to spread the cream over every inch of skin that she could reach, gently kneading and stroking.

And so the erotic gestures continued.

As she was done with his front, she looked at him, hands still on his stomach. Then she moved behind him, her hands never leaving his skin and made sure the best she could that he wouldn't get sunburned on his back. Or lower back. Or shoulders. Or neck…

Shinichi, just like Ran, was having the time of his life. He enjoyed her tender ministrations endlessly, only now becoming aware of how much he had missed while being trapped in the body of Conan Edogawa.

Ran almost pouted when there was no skin left to tend to. She had never thought that she would love caressing his chest and arms and shoulders and all so much but she blamed it on those hormones that had been suppressed for so long. She moved to his front and kneeled down again.

She looked at Shinichi who looked back at her, an intensity in his eyes which she had no idea where it had come from. She couldn't know, either, until the day he decided it was safe enough to tell her the complete truth. But that didn't stop her heart from throbbing powerfully in her chest or her throat from drying up or the butterflies in her stomach from swirling.

For now, all Shinichi wanted to do was act for once according the hormones that boys his age simply possessed. That's why he took her face between her hands, (had he ever mentioned how much he loved doing this and how beautiful she looked to him?), stroke her cheeks with his thumbs before pulling her face a little towards his while at the same time bent down to tenderly meet her lips.

Some kisses later, Ran and Shinichi lay on the blanket, sun-tanning like they had wanted to. He lay on his back, one hand underneath his head while the other was around her shoulders. She was resting her head on his chest and had one arm over his stomach and one leg between his and their eyes were closed with blissful smiled on their lips. All in all, this was the most comfortable position both could think of at the moment.

"Ran?" Shinichi lazily asked.

"Hmm?" she murmured just as lazily.

"Do you want to go swimming just yet?"

"No, this is nice, just relaxing… Do you?"

"No, you're right." He kissed the crown of her head and Ran sighed happily, holding him closer with the arm across his chest as they both sighed and went back to relaxing and settled down comfortably.

---

"Wasn't that so cute?"

"Huh? What?"

"Seeing them come home together, hand in hand?" Kazuha smiled at Heiji while they were swimming in the huge outdoor-pool. "Come on, big guy, don't tell me that wasn't a lovely picture!"

"Yeah…" he had to admit, swimming next to her. "It was. Never knew he had it in him…" Heiji was glad that she could not always read his thoughts, for it wouldn't have served the situation to have her know what he was thinking about. To him, it was a bigger miracle than it was to her, since he had only known Shinichi in the body of a small kid for a very long time. And every time he had seen the longing in the little boy's eyes whenever he had looked at Ran. Of course, that only happened in moments when he thought himself unobserved.

A feeling that was mutual, Heiji knew that. Ran had always held the same longing and hope whenever she heard somebody mention Shinichi's name and the disappointment had been great every time he had to explain that it was a mistake.

And suddenly, his friend was right there where he had always wanted to be, and Heiji found that even though he had teased Shinichi mercilessly, he was very happy about it.

'God, I am such a nice person!' he grinned stupidly to himself.

"Ouch!" he grunted surprised. Kazuha had slapped him lightly on the head. "Ahou, what did you do that for??"

"Oh, I am sorry, but it seems like you were on a detective-high again!" she giggled and after saying the last words, already started swimming away from him.

He blinked surprised but two seconds later swam after her. "You evil little mermaid, just wait! I'll catch you and then…"

He heard her giggle not too far away. Very soon he had caught her and was holding her close from behind. "I got you! What am I supposed to do with little, helpless you?"

"Oh, I don't know!" she giggled, trying half heartedly to wriggle out of his embrace.

"Hm…" he pretended to be thinking hard about this question. "How about I start out like this…"

He used his arms that he had around her waist; still, he turned her around and took one side of her face in his hand. Holding the eye contact for a couple moments, he then slowly bent down and gave her a honey-sweet kiss. He pulled away rather quickly which earned him a low, disappointed moan from his girlfriend. He only reacted with a knowing grin and decided to do nothing but wait for her next action.

Indeed, he didn't have to wait for long as she glared at him, wound an arm around his neck and pulled him down to her, kissing him thoroughly and hard.

---

"Shouldn't we go to look for them?" Ran asked him, eventually breaking the comfortable silence.

"You mean save Hattori's neck?" Shinichi retorted, grinning. Ran grinned back, nodding.

"Let's hope we won't have to. Come on!" she stood up, pulling him with her and over to the water.

As it touched her toes, Ran shuddered, squeaking quietly. But Shinichi wouldn't have any of it. He smiled and pulled her deeper inside by their still linked hands.

"No! Kudo Shinichi, don't, I swear I will…" …but it was too late. Way too late.

Ran resurfaced, gasping for air and cleaning her eyes of the water. "I can't believe you just did that!"

Shinichi only laughed.

"Oh, wait till I get my hands on you, Shinichi…"

He laughed loudly as he swam for his life, literally, Ran on his heels. After all, he knew too well and was not about to easily forget what the karate champion was capable of. For his own safety.

She very soon caught him and spun him around to face him. She gave him a nasty glare and he couldn't help but laugh again because it looked too cute when she wanted to look angry but didn't really mean to with all her heart.

"You look so cute!" He gently touched the tip of her nose with a finger.

Ran blushed and swatted his hand away. "You only say that to make me forget to take my revenge on you!" She accused him.

Shinichi smiled broadly. "Is it working?" he asked her teasingly.

Ran pretended to have to think about this for a long, long moment but eventually gave up to the grin she felt coming all along. "Yeah!"

Both laughed out and splashed the other with some water, playing like little kids.

When their laughter ceased, they smiled at each other for some time, saying nothing. Then Ran closed her eyes, stepped closer to him and snuggled in his arms. His naked skin against hers felt too good to be true; it was almost unreal to her and to him.

Shinichi wound his arms protectively around her shoulders, not only to keep the bad guys away (although he did glare at one who was particularly near to them and looking at Ran all the time; had Shinichi been a dog, he'd have growled at the villain). No, but also because no force on earth could stop him for doing so. It was one of the most perfect feelings he could imagine and he'd have to be totally stupid to not see that. He may have been blind the first time around as Shinichi, but he had definitely learned his lesson and denial would never again be an option for him.

He bent and quickly had one arm at the backside of her knees, the other at her shoulders and swept her up. Ran wound an arm around his neck as she forced her body to relax. This was actually a harder task than anticipated; she was, after all, not used to being this close to the boy, young man, who held her heart for god-only-knows how long.

He pressed her a little closer to him and with sweet satisfaction, he realized that her heart was beating just as fast as his was. Shinichi slowly walked them around the water and Ran had her free hand outstretched and was tracing the passing surface of the water, feeling like she was floating.

"This feels brilliant." She murmured, not sure if he had hurt her.

He had. "Yeah, it does. Where are the others, anyway?"

Ran turned her head and sat up partly to look around and scan the area. "I don't know. Let's search for them."

"All right. I still hope we don't find a dark-skinned corpse floating about the place."

Ran looked at him with a distorted smile before she started looking for their friends. After some time, they came to a secluded area behind some tree-branches, their search having been in vain up until that point.

"Where could they have gone to?" She was starting to get impatient.

Shinichi, who was swimming a few feet ahead, stopped dead in his tracks. "Ran, come here!" he whispered.

She looked at him in puzzlement that only grew at the silly grin on his face. Swimming over to him, she stretched her head a little to look at what he was pointing at. Her own face split in a huge smile.

She turned to smile at Shinichi, who returned it. They both looked back at the couple and then again at each other.

"Should I…?" she whispered to him.

His grin widened. "Be my guest."

Ran smiled broadly, then turned in direction of Heiji and Kazuha and pulled some branched away from the view.

"Well, well, look what we have here!"

Heiji and Kazuha stopped kissing and sprang apart as if a lightning had just torn through them. Kazuha only covered her mouth with both hands in shock as she realized the situation, Heiji only looking with big eyes at his stupidly grinning friends. As his gaze fell upon Shinichi's, he gulped inaudibly.

_'Oh crap, I know exactly that I will never hear the end of this, I can just feel it.' _

* * *

_Thanks to my adorable reviewers. Next chapter is going to be a little...hotter, I think...hehehe. After all, wouldn't we all like to know how exactly Heiji and Kazuha spent their time BEFORE Shinichi and Ran caught them kissing? Hehehehehehe... You'll be surprised, believe me!_


	5. Double date

_Haha, I love you guys! I am really happy you enjoyed this so much! And here, finally, is the next, naughty naughty chapter! ;-) Enjoy this please! And it keeps getting better, too, I promise! XD Oh, how I LOOOOVE to tease Heiji! He sure screams for it!_

* * *

**Chapter eleven - Double-date**

* * *

Their way to Ran's house was very…amusing for half of the participating people and incredibly nerve-wracking for the other half. 

While Ran and Kazuha walked ahead, with Kazuha having to explain to her friend what exactly happened how, Shinichi was taking advance of this change of tables.

"So, you are the guy who made fun of me earlier, right?"

Heiji didn't say anything, only nodded. Shinichi was not sure if there was any regret or shame in his features, really. But he went happily on with the torture since Heiji more than deserved it.

"And you called ME hentai, didn't you?"

Heiji was looking as if he was in pain. Shinichi grinned wider. He liked this way too much.

"But could you please tell me again, who exactly IS the hentai here?"

Heiji murmured something that sounded suspiciously like curses. Shinichi laughed.

"Yes, my dear, dear friend, you got that right. Hattori is a big hentai, can you repeat that?"

This time Shinichi saw the glare in the eyes of his friend and swore he had heard the f-word somewhere in all the cursing that were rolling over his lips like a waterfall. But Shinichi went on, still happy and cheery as if Heiji was not saying anything.

"…and then in a PUBLIC bath none the less, what were you thinking? I never knew you couldn't hold your horses. Then again, self-control was never one of your best abilities. And you know, as we saw you there…" Shinichi went on with his lecturing, not caring that Heiji was by now making whining noises and gesturing in a way that made clear he wanted nothing more than to hit the eastern detective's head against the nearest wall.

After some time that this went on, Shinichi turned more serious, deciding he had done enough teasing.

"Why didn't you tell me last time?"

"W-well, it's not any of your business anyway!" Heiji blushed.

"Hattori, seriously!"

"…You see, everything has been so muddled with Conan…you losing your memory and we still hesitate to tell others about our…relationship, so…" It was more than clear to see for Shinichi, that this was really hard for his friend.

"I see." Shinichi looked ahead, obviously thinking.

"What, are you already done making fun of me?" Heiji raised an eye-brow in suspicion.

"I think that's about enough. After all, I saw this coming long ago. You see, that's the thing with being a detective. Which brings me to it: I can't believe you took so long to realize what you feel for her! And you consider yourself a decent detective!"

Heiji grumbled something that couldn't be understood, his hands in his pockets.

"Oh well, I better stop this. Mostly because of this common saying, I am sure you have heard of it. It's something like: people who already lie on the ground shouldn't be hit in the guts even more."

Heiji pouted at that openly, for the first time wishing Conan back. The squirt never talked back that much and was way easier to manipulate. Dammit.

---

They got home and the girls quickly disappeared in Ran's room to change. After only one minute in her room, they could hear the guys arguing loudly in the kitchen.

"It's your fault!" Heiji accused.

"No, **your** fault! You ate like a bear right before its hibernation." Shinichi retorted.

"That's not true, you sad detective!"

"WHAT did you just say?"

"Sad AND deaf excuse for a detective!" Heiji repeated himself.

"You…you incompetent fool! Like we both don't know I am a way better detective than you could ever dream of being!"

"Well, at least I was officially active over the past months!" Heiji hissed back

"That was low!" Shinichi answered with lowered voice. Heiji took a moment to think this over before he had to agree.

"Ok, you are right. I blame the lack of food for our foul mood!"

"Oh, I agree!" There was a pause and Shinichi simply couldn't bite back the comment. "Although even in normal state we both know I am a better detective. Way out of your class."

"WHAT?"

"You heard me," Shinichi grinned with an air of superiority.

"Yeah right, maybe in your dreams! Or compared to your father-in-law!"

Heiji grinned as he saw Shinichi blush. _'Strike!'_

"Hattori, I can't believe you! How can your mouth possibly be still that big after we caught you getting all naughty in a public swimming pool!?"

"We were only kissing!" the in turn blushing tantei defended himself weakly. _'If you only knew, wise-ass!' _

"Right, at the point we cut in. Who knows what would have happened if we hadn't shown up?"

"A-as if you are Mister proper!" Heiji now desperately searched for a reply. "Who knows what you have done to Neechan since her father is gone and you back!"

"Hattori!" Shinichi half-screamed, shocked. Heiji only grinned.

"Still, I blame you! It's entirely YOUR fault I have to starve to death miserably!"

"So, are we fighting because of our stomachs or about who is the better detective? Or maybe about something entirely different…" Heiji was getting confused.

"Uhm…" Shinichi looked at Heiji, confused. They both fell silent for a moment. "Stomachs." Shinichi nodded.

"Definitely!" Heiji agreed, nodding as well, his hands crossed over his chest. "So, we come again back at declaring your guilt!"

"My guilt? Excuse me? That had been most definitely your own fault, Mister-big-black-hole-instead-of-a-stomach!"

"What did you just say, greedy insatiable moron!"

"What's this about?" Ran asked as she and Kazuha entered the room.

"Uhm…" both guys looked at the girls, then at each other, trying to remember the original reason for their little quarrel and to come up with a good answer for the girls.

"Heiji emptied the fridge in his stomach!" Shinichi accused.

"What?" Heiji's head shot up and he looked startled at Shinichi, the look of a betrayed person on his face. "Not true! Our wanna-be detective over here was about to eat even the hairs off my head after devouring the contents of the fridge!"

"What?" Shinichi almost screamed at him.

"You heard me you-"

"Enough!" Ran screamed over the top of their heads. Everybody immediately fell silent. It was undeniable that Ran had some serious authority. Especially when she was mad.

"Listen, you kids!" she pronounced the "kids" with a wild accusation that had the guys flinch. "Firstly, the fridge is empty because you two are insatiable. Secondly, we are going to the movies now and then are going out for dinner, so that problem is solved. Did I make myself clear?" To make herself even clearer, she hit her fist on the table, causing it to shiver mightily.

"Perfectly clear!" the intimidated young detectives said out of one voice, gulping.

"Great!" Ran smiled a honey and sugar-pie sweet smile at them, then turned to Kazuha.

"I would say boys' treat. What do you think, Kazuha-chan?"

"I agree completely, Ran-chan!" Kazuha grinned at her friend and took Ran's extended arm.

"Let's get going then!"

"Definitely!"

The girls turned and exited the kitchen. Heiji and Shinichi shared a meaningful look that said volumes more than any words could have at the moment.

"Are you coming?" Ran's voice was to be heard.

Both men immediately stood up, running out of the kitchen while struggling a little at the door as to find out who was to pass first.

---

The walk to the movies was pleasant. While the girls were engaged in a light conversation, Ran secretly cheered at the simple fact that she was allowed to hold Shinichi's hand without anything happening. Okay, so her cheeks still painted a lovely shade of pink, and her heart picked up speed at the delicious contact that displayed their closeness, emotionally and physically but…that was a side-effect she was more than willing to accept.

Never had she thought that she'd be walking around Tokyo as a couple with Shinichi, holding hands just like two of their best friends were next to them. Like a double-date! Oh yes, she would never have thought something like this would ever happen to her. Or at least not in the next ten years; that's what she had been thinking sometimes when the pain of being separated from Shinichi had grown unbearable. But that didn't matter at the moment. He was here with her, he was being the most adorable guy a girl could think of in her wildest dreams, and he was holding her hand in a warm clasp.

She turned her head and gave Shinichi a sweet smile, making more than clear that she was thoroughly happy with the whole situation. He could do nothing but smile back at her, inwardly wondering how such a small miracle could happen to him, after so much time that he had been trapped in a shadow of his own self. He only hoped that this pill now lasted forever so that he could spend the rest of his days making Ran so happy that she'd always smile like this at him. Did there exist anything nicer? He did not think so.

She looked back at Kazuha, resuming their conversation as Shinichi looked up over Ran's head. Right into Heiji's knowing, grinning face, which aroused in Shinichi the strong, tempting urge to smash something hard and really heavy right into it.

"What?" he hissed at him, hoping that the girls would notice nothing.

"Oh nothing. I was just watching you drool over her. It looks funny. Adds a certain stupidity to the expression in your eyes that is seldom there to observe. Like one of nature's biggest wonders!" Heiji kept on teasing the blushing Shinichi mercilessly. But, we all know that he wouldn't simply put up with it.

"If I were you I would be very quiet! After what we caught you doing…!" Shinichi hissed back, his eyes narrowed.

It was freaking him out that Heiji kept on grinning at him just as evilly, as if Shinichi had said nothing at all.

"You have no idea!"

_'Oh, if he only knew! I really should consider telling him, only to see his stupid expression. It would be worth it, really! Too bad I don't have my camera with me.' _

Shinichi raised an eyebrow, wondering if he really wanted to get to know the whole story and what exactly Heiji was playing at. This thought occupied him for exactly six seconds, before everything in him agreed out of one voice that he not only did not want to hear anymore about that affair, but also did not even want the slightest clue about what had happened because his brain would start deducing things he really did not want to know!

"By the way, Hattori, is it true that you have that motorcycle that you borrowed from the Tokyo-police in the theater's parking lot?"

"What? OH, yes, that's right. It was the best place to park it and it's not even far from the agency, so I left it there."

"Still nice of the police to lend one to you, don't you think?"

Heiji's grin was almost morbid. "Well, you have to have the right connections!"

Shinichi couldn't have rolled his eyes in a bigger circle has he tried.

"So, which movie do you guys want to watch?" Ran smiled, turning to the little group.

"A detective film!" Heiji and Shinichi half-screamed in unison, then looked at each other stupidly. Probably it looked really funny, too, because Ran and Kazuha burst out laughing in unison as well at seeing the guys look at each other.

"Well, what are the options, Ran-chan?" Kazuha asked Ran but kept her eyes at the lightly embarrassed boy next to her.

Ran looked back down at the program in her hands, studying it carefully before answering.

"Well, we've got a… Hm... looks like action. An action movie, a funny one... no, two funny ones. An old, romantic movie and an anime. Oh, and one with horror. So, chose and take!" She looked back up.

"Hm… wouldn't a funny one be a good choice?" Kazuha asked the others compromisingly.

"Yes, probably!" Ran agreed, looking at Kazuha. The girls did not notice the meaningful looks that Shinichi and Heiji exchanged. Once again, the fact that their brains were functioning the same way helped the two young men communicating and they quickly had agreed to a decision.

"Naaaaahhh!" Heiji sounded bored.

"A funny movie is not at all fun to go to!" Shinichi said in support of Heiji.

Kazuha and Ran looked a little surprised at the guys.

"What do you want to watch then?"

"The horror one!" Heiji and Shinichi said like as if out of one mouth, trying very hard to not sound too eager. The girls raised their eyebrows.

"What? Why would we want to watch a horror movie?" Kazuha asked surprised.

"Well, we are guys!" Heiji countered.

"Wha-? Excuse me? We are GIRLS and we could have suggested that we watch the romantic film, but we tried to find a compromise!" Kazuha argued back.

"What makes you think we have to do what YOU decide anyway?"

"Heiji, I can't believe you! Here we are, all together and you-" the couple from Osaka kept arguing and Shinichi shared an amused look with Ran. It was obvious that both were happy that their friends haven't changed too much. They knew what they had to do, though. Lean back and don't mess with them at the moment and let them find a solution of their own.

Amused, the young couple watched their friends argue over the matter, holding hands all the while, inwardly happy at this little piece of normality. A few minutes later, Kazuha returned with a happy grin to Shinichi and Ran to tell about her achievements.

"Okay, we have come to a decision. We watch that horror movie but the guys have to get the popcorn and soda. What do you think about that?"

"Sure!" Shinichi agreed immediately, still suspiciously eager.

Ran looked at him, surprised, and seemed to think about it a little longer. She shared a long gaze with Kazuha. Suppressing the grin, she nodded.

"What about ice-cream?"

She and Kazuha looked at Shinichi who felt for a moment a **little** cornered, and then, as if he didn't dare say otherwise-what he didn't, he gulped and agreed.

"Whatever you want!" he assured Ran, slightly nervous at the intensity of the girl's gazes.

"I am in!"

"Great!" Kazuha beamed and turned left to watch Heiji approach again. Amused she noticed that he looked a little stressed out. Hey, just because they were together now didn't mean she'd let him do whatever he wanted!

Smiling inwardly, she took his hand and all four entered the big building.

"Wait here, I'll get the tickets!" Heiji said and quickly disappeared before anybody had the chance to stop him.

Wondering about his behaviour, but saying nothing, the remaining three went to get the snacks. They met up with a brightly grinning Heiji only a few minutes later.

"Did everything go well?" Ran asked him.

"Oh yeah, everything's just great!" Heiji grinned back.

Ran hadn't known Heiji for too long, at least not as long as Kazuha did, that's why she found nothing strange about his reply and his grin. But his friend from childhood raised an eyebrow suspiciously although she decided to say nothing.

---

_'It's a good thing to be always right, or isn't it?'_ Kazuha thought, debating with herself as she sighed.

She had known it and she'd have loved to have somebody at the moment whom she could scream at: "I told you so!!"

It was clear to her that when Heiji was that keen for something, of course he would have an afterthought. Predictable bastard. Men.

_'Couldn't he, after what had happened while swimming, at least be a little more subtle? Did he have to go and buy tickets in the back of the cinema, those special double-seats for couples and seat Shinichi and Ran in front of us? Could he get any more obvious? Oh my god, what did I ever do to deserve that guy?' _

"Kazuha? Are you ok? You look annoyed!" Heiji stated mater-of-factly from the spot on the double-seats next to her.

Kazuha groaned in almost corporally painful annoyance, hiding her face in her hand. _'Oh god…'_ How she wished that murder was legal. She might get away with it, though, if she explained her case. Perhaps it was worth a try, too!

Heiji looked confused at her.

Meanwhile, Ran was having other difficulties. This movie was really scary and she knew that she couldn't stand ghosts and monsters. Why did she agree to this again?

For the sixth time in the last three minutes she had covered her eyes with her hands and was gripping the seat with her other. At a particularly scary scene, she squeaked, surprised, and turned to Shinichi in order to hide.

The rigid boy could only pat her head and shoulder.

He wanted to hold her in return, partly to soothe her like he had planned, but also because he simply loved doing it. However, Shinichi was very nervous about it and though he thought of about a million ways he could do so, in the end decided on the old, yawning trick, which was simply the guy pretending to have to yawn and stretch his arms above his head, only to let them come down again around the shoulder of the girl next to him. A nice, small, casual gesture that was sure to lead him to success. Or so he hoped.

Feeling a little stupid but desperate at the same time, he decided to just get through with this. He took the popcorn in his left hand and faked a yawn, stretching his right arm high in the air. Slowly, completely nervous by now, he watched his arm descend, mouth still open.

_'Since when have you become such a coward, Mr. Famous Tantei?'_ a bugging part in his brain laughed at him.

_'Shut up! Only a few inches and I'll be touching her shoulder. Yeah, keep it up, don't fail now, moron.' _he tried to encourage himself and stable his nerves.

The arm lowered more and more, almost there, almost there, only a few inches left, come on, come on. Yes, here we go. Three, two, on-

What the-?

It seemed as if Ran had, just at this moment, decided that she was thirsty and bend forward to get her drink. Shinichi's arm landed on her chair. He blinked, confused, trying to sort out what had just happened.

Was he the most unlucky guy on this planet or wasn't he? Why did those things always happen to him? What did he ever do to annoy and enrage the heavens?

Lost in his cursing himself, he didn't notice that Ran had already sat up again with her drink in her hands. Of course, since over all of the self-arguments he forgot to take his arm away, little oblivious Ran sat up to collide right with his arm.

Shinichi felt his heart stop beating for the time she took to turn her head and look at him. Everything depended on her reaction and to him it felt like time had slowed down only to torture him.

To his immense relief, Ran only smiled shyly and leaned against him. His body immediately un-tensed as she, with her simply gesture, reassured him that she wanted his touch this way. Stupid, cheap yawning trick, okay, fine, but he was still happy that he had done it.

With racing hearts, the two cuddled up against one another, snuggling contently and tried to concentrate on the movie in front of them. Very soon they had to admit to themselves that that was an impossible thing to do.

Ran glanced at Shinichi, blushed, and turned her head away again.

Shinichi glanced at Ran, blushed, and turned his head away, too.

Three heartbeats later, both turned to look at each other and their gazes met. No matter how much they wanted to, they couldn't pull away. It was something magical and enchanting that was surrounding them.

As if in slow-motion, Shinichi leaned down the tiniest bit, checking her eyes again for any hesitation or restrain but found none. A little more confident, he bent further down. Ran turned her head to him all the way and leaned in to meet his lips in a tender kiss that ended only two moments later.

Both felt like they were steaming and quickly checked the other before dove in again for another kiss that lasted a lot longer than the other. Then they met for another earth-shattering kiss and another and another…This is basically how they spend the rest of the movie.

Meanwhile, right behind them Heiji bend down to whisper in Kazuha's ear.

"Oi, Kazuha!"

She turned to look at him questioningly.

"You still owe me!"

"What?" she whispered back, thoroughly puzzled.

"You know, what you promised me earlier…" he kissed her neck and caught her totally off-guard so that her whole body twitched in surprise. "Don't tell me you have already forgotten about that!"

**In a secluded corner of the swimming-pool, some time earlier.**

Heiji abandoned himself to the feeling and the taste of her delicious lips, a macho-grin clearly visible.

"Say," he pulled back, panting but happily grinning. "Did I already mention how good you look in this new bikini?"

"Really?" she drew back a little to look at him pleasantly surprised. Maybe because she'd have never thought he'd notice that the bikini was new. But then again, her boyfriend **was** a detective. Probably the fact that this was about skimpy swimming-underwear helped as well. Guys!

"Of course! I have to take care that all that other lecherous men who drool over you…" he gestured with his hand and looked around as if to verify his theory, a threatening shimmer in his eyes before he turned his gaze back to her. "…keep their hands to themselves because otherwise I'd have to break one or two of them!" Having finished, he gazed to some examples who were pretty close, means too close, hoping they had heard him. And just in case that they hadn't, his one arm sneaked around her shoulder a little tighter.

Kazuha only giggled. She always found it adorable when Heiji was jealous; not that she had ever given him any reason to be jealous. It was just his nature and a little jealousy never hurt anybody, right?

"But why didn't you ever tell me about this bikini?" he almost pouted at her, making it look like she had deprived a little boy of his candy.

"It was meant to be a surprise!" she defended herself.

"I still think I should punish you for that one!" he simply stated after a little thinking about it, advancing her slowly.

"That's all you ever do lately! Punish me for… something…anything, just to…" Kazuha stopped herself and blushed badly.

Heiji's grin grew. "Just to what?"

His grip around her waist tightened.

Just to get in her pants? No, she couldn't say that or he would really get the idea and…ok, too late.

"Heiji!" Kazuha exclaimed as loudly as she could manage, which was in her current state really not that convincing and jumped startled at his actions. "Stop it, we are in public!"

"What?" He looked all innocently at her, one of his hands splayed on her belly and the other innocently cupping one of her breasts.

Although he somehow understood her objections and restraints, Heiji just couldn't help himself. There was something about her that he found incredibly cute, sexy and irresistible.

"Come on, you must be kidding me, Heiji, if you think that I will let you-" her last resistance was cut off just like her sentence, by a simple, thorough kiss from Heiji that took her breath away immediately. He soon released her lips again and looked almost proudly down at her.

"H-Heiji, you…we can't do that…"

Kazuha was panting desperately now, not being able to finish her sentence and he knew it was only a matter of seconds until she gave in. That's why he went on with his game.

"Are you saying that you have any complaints?" his hands sneaked over her stomach with sensual touches, slowly but steadily going south.

He rubbed around her tummy with his flat hand and tickling fingers, loving the way she was squirming back against him and enjoying her pants and gasps immensely. How on earth was she supposed to stop him, when her body and her soul wanted this just as badly as he did? It was really a very hard time for reason.

His grin grew, her cheeks darkened and her eyes suddenly became very heavy. Heiji held her close to his body with his left hand while the other snaked up to the slipknot in the front of her bikini-top, tugging at it.

Kazuha could only moan, her head rolling back on his shoulder. All she could do was lean back against her boyfriend and hold tightly to him. She had forgotten everything about her objection, surrounding, basically everything around her except Heiji and she knew that was the way he had wanted it to be.

_'Loving bastard!'_ she cursed half-heartedly, moving a hand to cover his on her front, stopping him from entirely opening her bikini-top and instead turned around to face him.

The desire was clearly visible in both their faces and although she had meant to say something to stop him at this point, she drew forward and was kissing him passionately before she even knew it. Her arms wound around his torso while one of his was on her back, keeping her pressed firmly against him and the other sneaked to the back of her head, holding her tightly.

She drew back, their lips only inches apart while their breaths played across the faces of each other.

"Later, I promise!" she whispered against his lips and she dove in for another breath-taking kiss.

Before he could even get his brain moving to work out an answer, Shinichi and Ran, picking that exact moment to discover them, appeared behind their heads, looking shocked. Thinking about it now, they actually could have come at a worse timing. Let's say, a few minutes earlier. That would have become really interesting!

"Heiji, how can you suggest we do something like this, in here?" Kazuha tried, she really did, but she didn't manage to make her voice sound authentic enough.

"Why? I find the idea appealing!" he kept kissing her neck and chin as his hand cupped her knee.

"Ran-chan and Kudo-kun are right there!" she whispered fiercely.

"Well, it does not look like they care much to me. Or that they notice what happens around them." Heiji grinned. He had won this point; he knew it, as Kazuha turned her head to see the silhouettes of the two in front of them. They were doubtlessly engaged in kissing, not in watching the movie.

"B-but what about the other people?"

"Oh please, as if anybody is paying us any attention." She knew that he was right. She turned to glare at him.

"You can be a real pain in the ass, do you know that?"

Heiji didn't feel the need to respond to that. Instead, he grinned and raised a hand to stroke over her cheek. He could hear Kazuha sigh softly and smiled, bend down to kiss her. She sighed again, this time in his mouth but gave up trying to stop him. After all, she wanted this just as much as he did.

"But not…" she whispered against his lips and he nodded, kissing her again.

"I know. That's for later…"

Both grinned and wound their arms around each other, kissing with more devotion.

Actually he had only meant to tease her, loving her reaction when she was embarrassed and he knew that he wouldn't have gone all the way, although the idea **was** tempting.

But that still didn't stop him from stroking her chest with one hand, catching her completely off guard.

_'That guy!'_ Kazuha sighed inwardly.

_'Hey, I am only a man, too!' _


	6. Reminiscences

_Hey guys! This is my first, **OFFICIAL WARNING** concerning this story. I know lots of people love this and I am very very happy about that. I just hope you won't be scared off because this chapter IS **rated** **T** for a good reason. So, if you feel uncomfortable with MORE mature contents, please don't read this. You have been warned so no complaints! For all the other people... MUAHAHAHAHA THIS IS SO GOOD! ENJOY IT (I just KNOW you will XD) coz it's not only hot but also funny and romantic at once. If you do like it, DO say so coz I have MORE coming in the next chapter, hehe hihi... (goes to continue giggling like mad in the corner)_

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**Chapter twelve - Reminiscences**

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Ask any of the four young people who left the cinema together about the movie and all four would stutter an answer. Review of the movie they just watched? An impossible thing, for none had really watched it carefully. Nonetheless, we had four young people who were happy as they exited the movies.

Funny, wasn't it?

As dinner-time came, our two couples decided on having dinner in a sweet, cozy, restaurant that had crossed their way and was almost right next to the theatres. The furniture reminded one vividly of those old, romantic English restaurants from the late 60's, and the atmosphere catapulted you back to old England in no time. The girls were enchanted.

They took place on a table in a corner of the restaurant and, without any of them realizing it, the girls sat next to the window with their guys sitting down next to their girls. Even if one of the girls had noticed it, they didn't say anything, putting it back in their minds as another charming detail of this enchanting evening.

They ate in peace, chatting pleasantly but avoiding going very deep into the topic of the movie's content. Done with dinner, the guys happy once their stomachs were filled, they sat back and kept talking. Kazuha had just come up with some funny stories about their school-life and with wise-guy which the others found really amusing.

Soon, Heiji joined it as she came up with an incident a few months ago, in their school.

"You'd think that boys at our age are a little more mature…" Heiji began, looking thoughtfully at the sky and Kazuha finished his sentence.

"…but that definitely was not the case. Can you imagine they played a trick on the girls in the girl's locker room??" Kazuha asked, looking at Ran's direction.

"Really? What did they do?"

"They actually hid bugs in the locker room of our school's volleyball team and waited all innocently in the classroom, which is only one floor above the lockers, to hear the screams of the girls after their training!" she cast Heiji a nasty look who only grinned while trying to look innocently, which was a really weird combination, even for our master of grimaces.

"As expected, they screamed and came running upstairs, some in tears. The guys were amusing themselves pricelessly and the laughter was really loud at that point."

"I can imagine!" Shinichi in turn cast Heiji a look somewhere between amusement and accusation.

"What happened then?" Ran asked Kazuha who went on with her story.

"Well, me and some girls of the Aikido team gathered and we…avenged the girls."

"How did you do that?"

Kazuha blushed at Ran's actually simple and innocent question and put her glass of water to her lips. She sipped at it while focusing her complete attention to the rim of the glass as if nothing more exciting existed for her. Maybe she was thinking of a good reason to explain her delicious blush.

"Yeah Kazuha, how did you guys do that again?" asked an evilly grinning Heiji who was most obviously amusing himself highly. "I forgot!" he added to sound more credible, giving Shinichi and Ran a slight smile before quickly focusing his attention back to the blushing girl next to him since he didn't want to miss a second of this for this was way too good.

Kazuha looked back at him, almost annoyed, trying to sound as if the answer to his question should have long been obvious.

"Like we handle all challenges, ahou. Fight!" She held his intense gaze for a few long seconds before looking back at her feet, signaling that, for her, the topic was over.

"Right!" Heiji grinned at her, still, which was freaking her out even though she was not looking at him anymore but she could feel his gaze and simply knew exactly HOW he was looking at her, with the disbelief clearly visible on his fat grin.

'That stupid, does he desperately WANT to tell them abou-…' 

"Kazuha-chan, are you feeling all right? You look a little flustered!" Ran asked in concern.

"Y-yeah, I am great. It's a bit hot in here but nothing we can't change. Miss??" she quickly turned and waved at the waitress. "I'd like the chocolate and vanilla ice cream cup with extra whipped cream and chocolate sauce, please!"

Then she turned and smiled a forced smile at her friends, trying her best to make it look authentic. Out of the corner she noticed the dirty grin that Heiji secretly showed her and mentally slapped herself, cursing.

'_Chocolate-sauce and whipped cream? I must have been crazy to mention those in front of him! Especially after…' _To her dismay, Kazuha's blush deepened.

Luckily, after looking at her from top to toe, Ran let it stand like that and went back to a conversation with Shinichi about which ice-cream was the nicest, making a mental note to interview her friend more thoroughly at a later time.

Heiji leaned over towards Kazuha as discretely as he could and whispered in her ear in a tone that he knew would get her squirming and shivering immediately.

"So, "fighting" is what you'd call what we did that day, isn't it?" he pulled back to enjoy her embarrassed blush and quick glazes at the other people around her in case somebody had heard him. Then she looked at him for a few seconds but wasn't able to hold his gaze for long so she looked back at her hands that were folded on the table. His next words only served to make them sweat more.

"And, is your sub-consciousness trying to tell me something? With that naughty dish you just ordered?"

'I so hoped he'd not notice that mistake, dammit. I never get to be lucky, do I? Oh please gods, have mercy on me and my soul! Wanna say, my nerves!'

"Heiji, please don't! We are in public!" she whispered back fiercely.

"As if **that** has kept _us_ before!"

"It should **now**!" she looked sternly at him.

Heiji was always right where the challenge was and this sure felt like one.

"Or what?"

She glared at him, needing to think about a good answer only for a few seconds before she leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Soon, he pulled back as if she had slapped him and looked thoroughly shocked and terrified at her. He sat back and looked in front of him, grumbling something incomprehensible under his breath.

Kazuha leaned back and watched him with a deep satisfaction, 'victory' clearly written all over her face.

It was really funny, how her simple words had had such a delicious effect on him.

_"Or what? You know that my father is not at home tonight, right? If you don't behave now, I'll make you sleep on the couch, ALONE, with no opportunity to see this new lingerie you caught a glimpse of earlier. You know how stubborn I can be and I swear I will do it! So be good!"_

Oh yes, men are soooo easy, indeed. You only need to know which buttons to push.

But it was his own fault. What was the guy thinking? Did he desperately **want** to tell them about that one time, in school? Not that it wasn't worth it. It was just too embarrassing, no matter that that memory counted to one of her most favorite ones.

Oh yeah, it definitely was worth it telling. But she wouldn't and she hoped that for his own health, Heiji wouldn't either.

Kazuha leaned back against her chair and looked out of the window, sweeping over to her own mind's world that showed her again what exactly had happened back then.

Eight or nine months ago…

"_We are six, and we have six guys who need punishment. Everybody knows what they have to do. Leave their boss for me!" They all nodded at Kazuha and advanced their prey. Kazuha smiled, satisfied, and with triumphant grin walked towards Heiji._

_He is the strongest one in the Kendo team, that's why they have made him their captain. Heiji was never one to turn down a challenge or be intimidated by an opponent. But as he saw Kazuha advance, he couldn't help but feel scared, not that he would ever admit it. And no matter how much he despised his body for it, he felt it move away from her against his will. He felt the wall behind himself and that's the point he started panicking. Not that he would ever admit it._

_Left and right he could hear the battle cries and screams of pain from the others, and could see indefinable things fly around the classroom, which didn't help him gather his wits a bit. And through all this chaos, his gaze was glued to his childhood friend, who obviously seemed to be enjoying this way too much, judging from the sadistic expression on her face. She kept advancing towards him, the predatory look in her eyes even more present after seeing him run out of space to escape to. All in all, it was an expression, as if accepting an unspoken challenge, which said that you knew you could never lose. Never lose, even if only because you know you have the better tactic. He gulped but at the same time tried to keep a stable expression and hide his fear._

_Suddenly, out of nowhere, she did something he'd never have thought she'd do. Something he'd never have thought would have this effect on him. _

_Kazuha was standing right next to his table where all of his things were spread on. After a quick glance in Heiji's eyes, and a half corner grin that she cast him and almost made his heart skip a beat, she reached slowly to his table and took his keys for his motorcycle, the one with the miniature motor-bike as keychain. He gulped again, wondering above all things what was on her mind at the moment and what she was going to do with his keys. In those few seconds a million things came into his mind about what were her motives and a million ways of what she could do next only to make him suffer but he'd never have counted with what she really did in the end._

_The background sounds were still loud, his heart was beating strongly, his nerves blank but he did his best to remain standing and to look…well, cool and gathered, no matter how uneasy he was in the inside. _

_Looking deeply into his eyes, Kazuha ever- so-slowly and sensually brought her hand to her lips. Heiji watched his keys nearing her mouth, confusion spreading rapidly inside his brain. Unbeknownst to him, the fire-red color on her fingernails helped bind his gaze to her. If a bomb had exploded right next to him, he wouldn't have noticed it._

"_K-Kazuha?" he whispered, no matter that she probably couldn't hear him through this noise. She saw his lips move and knew exactly what he was saying what made her grin even more before she put her cool mask back on._

_At some point, tantalizing in its slowness, her lips made contact with the cool metal of his keychain. Her glistening, ruby-red lips, undoubtedly prepared beforehand, pressed against the little motorcycle, her eyes closed in the act. Heiji could only watch, stupefied and stunned, utterly shocked to the bones as her full lips kissed his little motorcycle. His mouth was hanging open, his eyes widened, his breath stuck in his throat, his heartbeat doing crazy things inside his chest. He even thought for a moment that his knees would fail him but he managed to remain upright once again. Probably because he was shocked to the place and moving seemed like an impossible thing to do. _

_There was simply something about that sight in front of him…something almost primal, that he could not turn away from. Something that had his full and undivided attention. There was no turning away from her._

_Upon seeing his reaction, Kazuha smiled, obviously quite satisfied with herself. This idea had been in her mind for a very long time now. She had admitted to herself how she felt about him and knew that he was feeling affection for her as well. She only didn't know how deep his feelings ran but that he'd be too stubborn to even think about them. That's why she had decided to give him a little push. A few weeks ago she had read about the basic primal instincts of men, how they still are there to some extent and how to activate them for your benefit. _

_The key-extract that had caught her attention sounded like this: "[… Apply lipstick or lip gloss before kissing him. Experts agree that wearing a bright red shade sends a strong sexual message and so will the wet-look. Because men depend on visual stimulation, watching ruby-red lips caress his body will drive him wild. […"_

_Okay, so at first she had thought it a joke but that thought wouldn't leave her mind. If it worked, then that'd be too great. If not, he'd look at it as a joke. Over and over she played with ideas of how to use this knowledge to make him wake up. To make it short, she had decided on this and would end it with one of the most primal and classical instincts. The hunt for prey._

_She grinned at him and suddenly turned and ran out of the classroom. At this sudden change of situation he didn't know how to react. Heiji blinked a few times and even before his mind had a chance to start thinking of a way to react, his feet sprung to life. His whole body seemed to have taken over his actions and before he knew it he was running out of the classroom as well and after Kazuha._

_He looked around but she was nowhere to be seen. Heiji grinned. So she wanted to play hide and seek, didn't she? Fine with him. He'd find her and then he'd punish her the only way she deserved. The picture of her lips on the bike came back to his mind and an idea struck him. He took off again, secretly and definitely unconsciously enjoying the feeling of the hunter who chases his prey. A sweet little bunny perhaps. Heiji's grin widened and left the school building._

_Underneath a large row of trees was the parking lot. Right behind his motorcycle he could make out a dark head. He grinned inwardly in triumph and advanced slowly, not bothering to make his steps quiet and light._

"_I see you!" he almost sang._

_She stood up to her full height and looked him in the eyes._

"_I'm afraid you caught me!" Kazuha walked around the vehicle until she was standing in front of it. Then she placed her hands behind herself, on the seat and leaned her whole body backwards, her behind against the engine, her chin high and proud as she participated bravely in his staring contest._

_Without thinking consciously, he walked forward, slowly but firmly, always towards her. Being a meter away from her he stopped once, looking thoroughly into her face with concentrated expression as if he had to think hard about something. His gaze was very intense and she could almost feel it dance over her, almost burning wherever it fell on. Once it rested on her lips and wouldn't seem to leave, then it travelled down her neck. During those few seconds, Kazuha couldn't help but feel her breath leave her lungs, only to inhale sharply and hold it a moment later. The anticipation inside of her and the tension between Heiji and herself sent shudders down her spine and made the little hair on her arms rise in excitement. _

_Then, all of a sudden, he closed the remaining distance between them and took her in his arms, almost forcefully, before leaning his head down and kissing her passionately. Kazuha yelped a yelp of surprise that lasted exactly three seconds before she regained her senses and wound her arms around his neck, kissing him back with the same passion. Although she had promised herself not to blush, she could not help it as the blood raced shamelessly to her head._

_Heiji was almost completely over her, steadying her body with a strong arm on her back while pressing her towards him tightly and leaning with her over the bike. As the moment passed, and he became aware of what he had done, he opened his eyes and let go of her, jumping a few feet away as if she had just slapped him across the face._

"_H-Heiji?" she asked in concern. Concern for him, concern that he regretted what has just happened whereas she would die for another kiss like this one._

_He moved a hand to cover his mouth and shook his head, a look of horror on his face._

"_Heiji???" Kazuha asked a little more forcefully, his behaviour making her hear sink._

"_I'm sorry!" he could only say rather quietly, which was not typical Heiji._

"_What???" Kazuha almost screamed at him, making Heiji look back to her for the first time._

"_I didn't mean to... to do that, I am… really sorry!" his words were like an arrow that stabbed directly in her heart. _

_So he regretted kissing her? She should have known that would happen. And here she thought he could… Oh, she felt so stupid, even more as she realized the tears that were running down her cheeks. She was such an idiot._

_Heiji panicked even more as he saw her cry. He stepped a step closer before stopping, fearing to be too close to her since that could hurt her more. _

"_D-don't cry, Kazuha, please!! Please don't cry, I…I know I should never have done that and... I am so sorry, Kazuha, stop please, I promise to never do that again and…"_

"_I don't…" she whispered quietly, without looking at him._

"_You what?" he didn't understand what she was playing at._

"_I said, I don't!" she cleaned her eyes and looked up into his face._

"_You don't what?"_

"_I don't regret kissing you." She blushed but stared stubbornly back at him. Heiji looked at her with huge eyes, his expression being not readable. She sniffed, and looked at him with teary eyes that have never looked more beautiful to him before whispering a quiet: "Do you?"_

_This was it, the moment of truth. She had bared herself to the limits and it was now his turn to either kill her by denying everything, or rescue her and accept her offer. And offer she did, everything that she had. It took our thick-headed detective a few seconds to figure out everything that lay in her simple question but as it finally did sink in, he hurried forward and took her in his arms._

"_I don't!" he stated firmly, holding her tightly while leaning his head on top of hers. Kazuha felt new tears, but only a few and they didn't feel bitter like the others._

"_Does that mean you…?"_

"_Yes!" he answered her unspoken question, feeling the heat rush to his face. "And do you?"_

"_I do!" she blushed and hid a bit deeper in his arms, loving the secure feeling that he could provide when holding her that close. Heiji was thinking along the same lines._

"_Ahou!"_

"_WHAT?" He looked shocked down at her._

"_Ahou!" she repeated. "What took you so long?" Her serious expression turned into a teasing grin and he relaxed. For a second he had thought..._

"_Hey, who's the ahou??"_

"_You__ are, since __I__ did something that lead us to this!" _

"_You did not!"_

"_I did not? And what was that in the classroom?"_

"_That had no effect at all!" he replied stubbornly, a teasing note in his voice._

"_So why did you kiss me?"_

"I just thought it'd be unfair to kiss a stupid fake metal motorcycle when you can kiss something so much better than that!" Why would he tell her that he hadn't been able to help himself, let along resist her at this moment for some reason?

"_Is that so?" she murmured quietly against his skin as she rubbed her nose back and forth on the soft flesh of his neck. Secretly, that has been exactly what she had hoped would happen, has been exactly what she had planned._

"_Oh, definitely!" He held her only tighter. They hugged before at some point she suddenly pulled back and looked at him._

_  
"Hey!"_

"_What is it?" he wondered, thinking he had done something wrong._

"_Don't think that you have won! This is not over; I simply don't feel like arguing!"_

"_Jeez…" he breathed and pulled her back in his embrace. "Whatever!"_

Both giggled and held each other tightly, enjoying this new intimacy a lot. Soon after that, they shared their second, third and….probably the hundredth kiss. Well, that happens when two passionate hearts finally open up.

---

"Do you share his passion for motorcycles?"

"What?"

Kazuha looked at Ran, a little puzzled. Her cheeks were already beginning to flush before Ran went on and Kazuha eventually understood.

"I mean because you have been staring after that passing motor-bike just now."

"Oh! Well, since that thing with Heiji, I-"

"**Thing**??" Heiji called out bewildered, as if somebody had just insulted his mother, making a few people in the restaurant turn their heads and look at him. He didn't notice. Even if he had, he wouldn't care anyway. "You mean, _relationship_, don't you!" he hissed.

Kazuha grinned evilly at him and, although she was gazing into his eyes, ignored him completely.

"That _thing_ with Heiji..."she emphasized the word harshly which made Heiji jump a little and stare at her in pure protest. "… I came to accept them. Maybe even like them."

Now, the last statement earned her the most astonished look from Heiji that one could imagine, complete with raised eye-brows, wide eyes and open mouth. He was babbling her last words, repeating them as if trying to understand them better, sounding each time more and more horrified. "Maybe even…? Maybe _even_…? Maybe…even…"

He softly shook his head, the unbelieving gaze on his face always focused on the girl next to him. As he had found his voice back he leaned a little closer and whispered in her ear.

"I hope you know that you will have to pay for that one, ne?"

One seductive corner of her lips rose as she just as seductively leaned towards him, too, and whispered back in a low voice.

"Oh? Does that mean you won't ever let **ME** drive again?"

Heiji pulled back, staring at her wide-eyed.

'Is she alluding to….? I can't believe she is hinting at…!' 

A staring contest of the finest sort began as his eyes bored deeply in hers. What was passing between those two right now, only they knew, sharing thoughts and memories that only they shared as well.

Memories, for example the one from a few weeks ago, on a very quiet late Sunday afternoon when Heiji had taught her how to ride his motorcycle on a deserted factory parking lot. It was a huge area, granting her all the space she might have needed. They had decided to combine this little adventure with a picnic. Kazuha had brought the basket and Heiji the rest, which consisted of a blanket, the motorcycle and himself.

The Heiji that was stubbornly staring at Kazuha's just–as-stubborn eyes eventually gave up, leaned back in his seat and folded his arms in front of his chest, trying to look really pissed off while inwardly reliving the events of that fantastic day.

After filling their stomachs a little (they both needed courage after all, and Heiji did not feel like getting the beating he knew he would have gotten when asking her if he was allowed a beer, preferably a whiskey), the real adventure was about to begin. Deep inside he knew it'd be worth it.

"_Heiji? Are you __sure__ about that?"_

"_Of course! Don't worry, you'll do fine! Now, come here and hop on top!" he ordered and held one of her hands and with his other the bike. _

_Kazuha sighed, knowing this was inevitable. She had been promising him to try this out since long ago. Sighing again, she swung one leg over to the other side of the motorcycle and sat down. Heiji sat close behind her and leaned over her shoulder to take her hands and lead them._

"_Hold tightly to the handlebar. To start the engine, you need to kick the pedal like this…" he explained her quickly the most important things that one should know when wanting to ride a motorcycle._

"_And now, try it. Just like I told you!" He steadied himself behind the young woman, his hands always next to hers on the ruler._

_Kazuha drove off…and killed the engine. She looked miserably up at him with huge, teary eyes. Heiji sighed and patted her head._

"_It's all right. You'll do fine. We'll try again!"_

"_Okay!" she whispered and concentrated again, her features distorted in concentration._

_Well, an hour later, Kazuha was proudly driving Heiji around the place. In fact, she had become so good that he didn't have to hold on to the bike anymore. He was now holding her around her waist._

"_You are good!" he praised her, his grip on her waist tightening._

_Kazuha almost beamed at his compliment, incredibly proud, and leaned a little back against his shoulder while driving them around the huge area._

_Maybe it was just him, but having your sexy girlfriend sitting in front of you, on a motorcycle, in control, leaning against you, clad in a light top and skirt, her legs spread…well, maybe it WAS just him but he found this image incredibly erotic and arousing._

'_And who's going to believe her anyway, when she says it's an accident she's wearing that red lipstick today? I may be a little slow with these things, maybe even a little naïve, but how could I, as the great detective that I am now, NOT know about signal colors? Come __on__!'_

"_Another thing..." he went on with his lecturing. "What's also important is to concentrate on the task at hand. You can't let other things distract you. Do you think you can do that?" he whispered the last sentence against her ear. Kazuha shivered, but thought nothing of it._

_Almost offended, she replied quickly and with enthusiasm. "Of course!"_

"_Let's try that out!"_

_In the split of a second, before her mind had any chance to even start with the thinking about the meaning of his words, his hands had already groped her breasts. Her eyes almost bulged, the motorcycle swayed dangerously, but she caught herself and the cycle, slowing down the pace._

"_H-Heiji!" she breathed, her voice not quite as steady as she had wished. _

"_Hush! Concentrate on the road!" he ordered and went back to fondling her breasts, his mouth finding its way to her neck. He licked it leisurely. The motorcycle swayed again, but she caught it._

"_Heiji!" she tried to sound scandalized. Succeeding or not, it was really not like Heiji cared. He went back to attacking the skin he could reach while allowing his hands their fun. _

_She moaned something that sounded vaguely like his name, but he only heard the moan and grinned a grin that was thoroughly filled with male satisfaction._

'That's it!' his mind chanted. 

"_Do you want me to stop?" he stopped his caresses, pulling back a little._

"_Uhm…" her body betrayed her. The moment his hands had stopped, it had arched back against him demandingly. His grin grew._

"_You do a good job!" he whispered in her ear, licking her ear-shell after finishing his statement._

_Knowing what was about to happen, he took his left hand from her breast and put it next to hers on the handlebar. Then his other hand moved south._

"_Aaah!" Kazuha groaned out and luckily Heiji was also holding on the bike because otherwise…_

"_Keep going, honey, keep going!" he urged her on and her grip re-tightened until the motorcycle was in her control again. Maybe not as steady as it used to be but honestly, who cared? At the slow pace nothing could happen anyway._

_And at some point, he could even concentrate both his hands on her body again, continuing with pleasure his torturous assaults on her body, one hand massaging her breast, the other rubbing at her crotch. Kazuha was finding it increasingly difficult to keep her eyes open, and already was not able to hold her moans back._

_Heiji's self-satisfied grin grew and grew. Her sweet sounds of pleasure were turning him on incredibly and he could not wait for them to get home, the fact that he had an empty house for the next two days only being the icing on the cake. _

'_Thank the heavens for my parents' annual alone-time in the mountains!'_

"_Hei-Heiji…I can't…can't t-take any more of…" she gasped, her eyes drifting shut for a few seconds, and the bike swayed again. He took her heavy sighs and gasps, the abandoning expression on her face that seemed almost pained as his sign to stop the torture. Of course, if he was true with himself, the pain in his groin did support this decision considerably._

"_I understand. Let's go back to the blanket, shall we?"_

_She swallowed without really knowing why but nodded nonetheless. "O-okay."_

_He could clearly see that she was lost in the passion that he had evoked in her, but as he heard her quiet moan of protest after removing his hands from her body, he could not help his smug grin._

_And that was the main reason why he'd never have counted on what came next. The moment they had descended the motorcycle and he turned to face her with an almost proud expression on his face, she slapped his arm rather hard._

"_Ouch!" he stared at her in utter shock. "What did you do THAT for??"_

"_How __**dare**__ you ask me that question after…after THAT and look completely innocent in the process?" she spat at him, trying her hardest to look horrified and shocked._

_His mouth opened but no sounds came out. And she did not wait for a reply either; she simply turned and stomped away in direction of their picnic basket. Heiji was left back staring after her._

_Honestly, that woman was…she was…well, don't blame Heiji for it; but he was simply lacking the words right now and those who know him better knew that that nearly never happened. So now go and imagine the state he was in. Poor guy._

_But, luckily, our great detective also recovers quickly. In addition to that…he hasn't known his childhood friend for his whole life for nothing. He knew her better than she did, and that's why it was pretty easy for him to decipher the state she was in herself and know that she had liked it just as much as he had. Sometimes, she simply liked playing the difficult._

_He grinned, already forming a strategy in his head. Then he walked after her. She was already sitting on the blanket and looking over to some trees, seeming absent-mindedly. Heiji took a deep breath, the evil grin on his lips always there, and sat down behind her, winding his arms around her body without second thought. He was encouraged in his plans of seducing her as she leaned back against him. Perfect, phase one succeeded!_

_He leaned down and started kissing her shoulder tenderly, his hands stroking over her bare arms with big, warm caresses. She did not fight him, phase two succeeded as well._

_He leaned over and took some of the delicious things from the basket she had brought, spending the next half hour feeding her the delicious food. They didn't talk, really, just giggle and play with each other with Kazuha returning the gesture of feeding him._

_Stuffed and happy, he leaned back and gathered her gently in his arms._

"_You are not mad, are you?"_

_He felt her chest raise a little as she giggled. "No…but it __was__ dangerous!"_

"_Oh come on, you did so good! Before __**and**__ after I did this!" and with only that as a warning, he picked up the groping where he had left it on the bike, earning himself a groan that let his ego bloom again._

"_Heiji, you…you…" she panted, trying to brush his hands away but failed miserably. _

'_Honestly', Heiji thought, 'does she really have the smallest hope of succeeding and actually fending me off?? Even though her body more than agrees with MY actions? Jeez, women are strange.'_

_Yes, that was what Heiji figured out eventually but as he looked down at the beauty in his arms that was leaning against him, wriggling a bit against him and whose soft flesh he was teasing so very deliciously, he also decided that he didn't care one bit._

_Suddenly, something near the basket caught his attention and a naughty idea sneaked inside his head (he even admitted being naughty today but put all the blame at Kazuha for her sexiness and skimpy outfit)._

_Depriving one of her soft mounds of its attention, he reached out and took the spoon that had been in the bowl with the whipped cream and lead it to her lips._

"_Aahhh!" he encouraged her. Kazuha giggled but opened her mouth, letting Heiji feed her._

_He grinned down at her, and re-filled the spoon with the yummy white substance, feeding it to her until she started protesting._

"_Hey, that's enough. What about my figure!? You are going to make me fat!"_

_Again, his actions were even quicker than his brain. He took her open mouth as an opening and fed her another spoon, then dipped his head down and kissed her thoroughly without any warning; but Kazuha responded to the kiss with equal passion, which made Heiji grin inwardly since he knew that was a sign of how far Kazuha was already carried away . Or rather, a sign that he had done a fine job arousing his girlfriend._

_Dropping the spoon, he reached in the bowl with his fingers, took some cream and smeared it on her cheek. She sat up a bit and turned to reveal her bewildered and surprised, almost shocked expression. "Heiji, what…?" she had no idea why she did not finish this sentence but she simply didn't feel capable of doing so…_

"_Well, then I am going to do something good for your skin!"_

_He rubbed it against her skin in circles, his smile betraying how much fun he was having. Done, he grinned at her wolfishly and leaned forward to lick the cream off her cheek._

"_Hm, strange. Suddenly this tastes even sweeter. Do you think it has something to do with your cheeks? Are cheeks usually that sweet?"_

_Inwardly, he begged, almost prayed for her to play along and react. He smiled relieved as he read in her expression that she understood._

"_Uhm, you see, I never tried it. But maybe you should try other spots; just to be sure it wasn't a unique occurrence!"_

'_Oh, I love the way she said that!' was all he could think before his hands moved to strip off the strap of her top, along with the one of her bra. Then he smeared a bit of cream on her shoulder and moved in to lick it clean again. She shuddered a little against his lips but tried to remain unmoving._

"_Hm…" Heiji put on his thinking-expression. "Sweet too, but I am still not sure. I should make sure, don't you think?" he grinned naughtily in her face, his expression sending another shudder through the girl._

"_Oh yes. If you must!"_

_He stripped off the other side of her top and tugged it down so that a huge part of her décolleté was visible. Taking some more of the whipped cream in his already sticky fingers, he spread it there and slowly, teasingly leaned down to clean her, taking his sweet time._

_By this time, he was already cursing that he had chosen to wear jeans today, for the unyielding fabric was really starting to hurt him in some important body-parts. He only hoped that he could get rid of them very quickly. But that meant he had to take this up a bit._

_He reached in the basket, took a small plastic-bottle out and emptied its content on her cleavage. Using his willing fingers, he spread the sweet chocolate-sauce on her just as willing flesh, smearing some with his dirty fingers on her nose, cheeks and arms as well._

"_Heiji!" Kazuha tried to sound shocked, mainly because he had surprised her with the chocolate. Still, she found her words gone as his lips and tongue, oh-never forget the scandalous talented tongue of his, went to follow the trail of lust and chocolate his hands had left behind, and simply laid back to enjoy while her hands went to stroke his head affectionately._

_Soon, he pulled back, grinning proudly at the completely ravished picture she now displayed._

"_My, just look at you, all dirty, sticky and…wet!" _

_His grin must have hurt him, was one of her last rational thoughts, for it was simply too enormous as he said those words and grimaced with a thoroughly and obvious naughty expression down at her but not only at the spots that he had made sure that she'd be wet but also down to the spot between her legs. _

_Speaking of it, after saying what he had said and seeing her delicate blush, his hand developed a mind of its own and sneaked underneath her skirt as if to verify his words. After all, if he knew one thing it was that you could never claim something without proof._

_Heiji grinned wider. Well, proof he had._

"_And what…" she panted and took a deep breath to gather herself before going on. "What do you suggest we could d-do… a-about that?"_

"_Well, you know it's not far to my house. Maybe we should ride home and…" _

'_Continue riding there? - God, never knew I am such a pervert! Must be her influence, I am sure of that!'_

"…_uhm…make sure you take a shower. That looks like the only way to me!"_

_Taking a long moment to stare in his eyes, she nodded. "Okay then."_

_In unison they stood up and started collecting their things in record time. Almost done, she suddenly called out his name._

"

'It is going to be torture, the way back to my house!' 

_Quickly stuffing the blanket in the bag, he was already on his way to his motorcycle with the bags in one hand and with the other hand dragging a grinning Kazuha along with him._

_And, Heiji found his thoughts coming true because about halfway back, he was driving himself simply because it would be faster this way; she decided it was time for "payback". Again, the poor motorcycle swayed dangerously as its owner groaned loudly. _

_Kazuha grinned where she was resting her head against his back and hold on tightly to him with one hand, torturing him further with her other. 'Stupid unyielding fabric!' she thought. _

'_I should have known she does not put up with "defeats" this easily. Stupid detective, what do you know, anyway?!' he railed against his own master-mind._

---

"Kazuha-chan? Are you all right?"

"What?" Kazuha looked up and right into the concerned eyes of Ran.

"You have been staring at your ice-cream for the past several minutes and Heiji-kun looks like he is off in another world. What's wrong with you two?"

Kazuha turned her head towards Heiji. He seemed lost in thoughts as well and judging from the silly smile on his lips she knew that he must be thinking about the same event as she was.

"No, it's nothing. The ride to Tokyo was really exhausting for him. Well, for me, too." Kazuha gulped as secretly as she could, trying not to blush at her own words and betray herself. Yes, riding a plane with Heiji as your boyfriend really could be exhausting. Feeling the blush come up, she looked down again and quickly went on.

"In addition to that, I just had a déjà-vu concerning this cream and the chocolate. It's nothing grave, so don't worry. We just need some rest, that's all." She smiled her most convincing smile at her friend, hoping it'd be enough to make her believe that her words held the complete truth. After all, half of it really was true.

"Okay then." Ran sat back, looking a little relieved.

Kazuha looked back at her ice-cream, took another spoon full of the cold substance and ate it, soon finding herself drifting back to the memory she was torn out from. The really exciting and most vivid memory of what had happened after they had reached Heiji's house at that late afternoon a few weeks earlier.

Ran observed her friend for a little while and finally figured that she was lost in thoughts. Sighing, she looked quickly out of the window to her left, looking at the setting sun. Then she turned to her right and looked at the young man next to her. She knew his profile by heart, the shape of his nose, his chin, the bangs of his hair that hung wildly down to half cover his eyes… it was so much HIM and for a moment the sheer happiness of Shinichi sitting there, next to her, robbed her of her breath.

From the corner of his eyes, he noticed the girl's movement and turned to stare back in her eyes. She smiled at him, earning herself a smile from Shinichi in return that immediately warmed her heart up even more.

Under the table, he gently took her hand in his. Ran's cheeks painted a slight, faint rose but she was too happy and feeling way to snug to pull away. Instead, she laced her fingers through his.

Ever so slightly, she leaned in and against him, then lifted her head to whisper in his ear.

"Is it always going to be like this?"

"Like what?" Shinichi whispered back.

Ran smiled again at the young man she was leaning against and enveloped their intertwined hands with her free one. She looked at the ball of fingers, thinking about her words before she answered him without looking up.

"Like this!" she lifted their hands a bit. "So peaceful, comfortable, nice and simply…perfect!"

A little taken aback, the still young tantei thought about his answer. Should he lie to her and simply say "yes!"? He was so sick of those lies but at the same time didn't want to worry her even more. What was he to do?

"No…" he quietly, almost shamefully, answered her.

Ran's head shot up as she looked at him surprised. There was a little hurt in her eyes but also a strong, overwhelming wish for explanation.

He leaned a little closer to her, and broke the eye contact.

"I don't want to lie to you, Ran. It won't always be this nice and certainly not this peaceful…" he paused, side-glancing at her face to look for her reaction. She didn't say or do anything, just sat there and listened to him, face completely emotionless. Truthfully, this was freaking him out even more. "…but!" Shinichi went on, taking a deep breath.

Here it was, the one word she had prayed for.

"…but there also will be a lot of good times and even times that are…even more perfect than this, I promise!"

Shinichi didn't know if he had annoyed her with his answer, but he loved her too much to lie to her. He wanted that she knew what she was getting herself into and that she did it because she herself wanted it and not because she was blinded by nice words. The anticipation in his stomach was almost eating him from the insides.

To his surprise, and great relief, Ran only smiled. It was a smile that was maybe a little…odd, as he found, but certainly pretty and went right through him in a chilly shudder. Then she stretched a little, turned her head slightly and whispered her reply in his ear.

"I wouldn't want it any other way."

And, as if to seal her point, she stretched her neck a little more and pressed an endless soft kiss on his cheek before sitting back down properly.

Shinichi blinked a few times, confused then pulled back to look at her. Her cheeks were equally red and she held his gaze curiously but only for a moment before she had to look back down at their joined hands. At the moment it definitely felt like their hands were not the only thing between them that was joined. There was so much more…

He couldn't help himself, totally ignoring all the teasing possibilities that he offered Heiji, and laid his arm around her shoulder properly, pulling her softly to him. And in his warm embrace Ran smiled and cuddled in his arms.

At this moment, more than anything else, he wanted to tell her how much he loved her. Wanted to bare his feelings to her and tell her everything that he kept hidden in his heart for so long.

But could he really do it? Could he really risk hurting her the next moment if he had to transform back to Conan? It would only hurt her more.

More and more, stronger and stronger the feeling of total helplessness and worthlessness started to consume him. Helpless because there was nothing that he could do about the situation to make it any better and worthless because he didn't feel worthy of her.

And, there was still a last question that remained. Would she respond to his feelings in kind?

Did she love him in return?

He drew back a tiny bit and looked at her form, snuggled against his chest and in his arms comfortably, fitting against him like she were designed to be exactly where she was, in his arms, completing him.

Right away he felt shame and guilt wash over him. After all that they've been through, how could he question her feelings and her sincerity?

He knew that she loved him and although saying it was only a little different from showing each other ones feelings, it would still make the tiny difference; a tiny difference that was so hard to speak out. Nevertheless, he could life with it until he returned to his real body for good and won his fight against the evil that was responsible for all his problems.

Then he would say it along with his story and the most important question he would ever ask. Until then, he'd have to content himself with what he had, which was, honestly, not all that bad, knowing exactly that when that day finally arrived it'd make everything up to him and at the same time give him the opportunity to make it all up to her in return.

He hugged her tighter and kissed her forehead tenderly, almost carefully, lightly brushing his lips against her skin and in return felt her hand lay across his stomach, warming the spot it rested upon. They snuggled closer against one another, not saying a word, both knowing what the other felt. It was the comfortable silence that drew together, almost bound together, people deeply in love. Instead, they let their minds wander off and here and there cast their two, equally silent friends, who seemed to be with their minds at a whole different place, a couple of measuring gazes.

---


	7. Goodbye!

_I am very sorry for the delay, lots of things happened and helped prevent me from acting as I wanted to. Unfortunately the next chapter is for adults only because of some very hot scenes of Heiji and Kazuha in the shower. I am sorry but I decided against publishing it here since I don't want to rate this story M. Instead, here's the next chapter (you don't need the missing chapter to understand the story, nothing from the plot is missing). However, who does wish to read this missing chapter, email me or look it up at my homepage. Sorry, I hope you understand and enjoy this story none the less. Lots of love, Jojo_

* * *

"AAAHHHHH!" A scream that tore through skin and bones, tore through the light conversation that hung upon the cozy restaurant and the once comfortable silence that enveloped the table of our four.

**Chapter fourteen – Goodbye?**

Some of the guests turned to search for the source of the penetrating scream. To the shocks of our couples, the said source was sitting among them, for one of them was clutching his heart in an almost painful grip.

Ran looked at Shinichi in shock, the hand that he had been holding now abandoned and outstretched. She very carefully reached out for his arm, her eyes overflowing with concern.

"S-Shinichi? Are you all ri-…" She saw the beads of sweat on his forehead, growing more panicked. "W-what wrong with you?"

Shinichi gulped, trying to gather himself enough to gain his voice back through his panting. He forced a smile to form on his lips, somewhat relieved that the pain had vanished as abruptly as it had come. Maybe it had only been a…a joke his body had played on him. There was no way that he would change back. No change…

"I am ok. Sorry, I only…

And then he felt it again. The pain that started in his heart and shot through his whole body in jerking spasms.

_'Oh my god, I can't believe this is happening to me! This can't be happening!' _

And all of a sudden, all that he knew was that he had to get away. Had to get away as soon as it was possible unless he wished to shrink to a size smaller than the table he was currently sitting on in front of everybody.

"I'm sorry; I just remembered an important phone call I have to make, like now. Excuse me!" Even to his own ears it sounded **so** lame but he had no time to be picky.

He stood up and left the three back, stunned. Heiji felt like this all was happening in only a few seconds and he was completely powerless about the events. He had a slight suspicion about what was going on with his friend and he hoped with all his might that he was wrong. He put his hands on the table and was about to stand up as somebody else was faster than him.

"Excuse me," an incredibly concerned Ran murmured to her friends and disappeared in the direction Shinichi had run off.

Kazuha and Heiji watched silently as she run off, both concerned for their friend, Heiji more than her since he knew the whole background. Kazuha was completely clueless.

She looked with big eyes filled with worry and puzzlement at Heiji who only looked sympathetically back and lay an arm around her shoulder, comforting her the best he could while inwardly sending another, silent prayer to heaven, that his friend would be all right.

---

Ran found Shinichi right in front of the boy's restroom, leaning with his hands and his forehead against a wall.

_'Have I said earlier that life was good to me? Screw that!' _

Her whole body was tense and hands balled to fists as she stepped towards him and slowly reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder.

"S-Shinichi?"

He flinched a little at the contact and her words but didn't run away, only turned his head towards her. She could see his pained and hunted expression and felt tears coming up.

"Please, tell me what's wrong, I…" But she couldn't say more as she was faster in his arms than she could blink.

But she didn't refuse, just held him back with all her might, having a feeling as if something or somebody was forcing him away from her, again!

They had turned in the process, her back now pressed against the wall while his hands let go of her and were again holding his weight, which grew more and more unbearable with the minute, against the wall. She looked at him and at the miserable picture that he suddenly presented and felt her heart shatter. She knew where this was leading.

"Please…" she whispered, holding on to his arm with one hand while the other was against his chest. "Please don't leave me alone again, I couldn't stand it."

"Ran…" he looked deeply in her eyes and as he saw the wet trail of hot tears that ran down her cheeks almost started crying with her. His eyes did moisten, though, as he bent forward a little, through all his pain, and rested his forehead against hers. But he couldn't talk because it was a too hard task to not scream out in the pain that he was experiencing at the moment.

Oh god, what was he to do? What could he do now without putting her in danger nor hurting her emotionally? He couldn't possibly allow her to see him transform, and not only because it was too humiliating. While he was engaged with his inner conflict of what to do next, what he could possibly do next, he felt the pain that jerked through him in another strong wave bring tears to his eyes and thus he closed them.

The feeling of her hands caressing the backside of his head felt almost distant, as if happening in another universe. The pain and fear and hurt had carried him to another dimension and he could only faintly feel anything else or understand what was happening around him anymore, the feeling that he was about to fall unconscious growing in intensity.

All he knew next and this all of a sudden, he felt something warm and wet press against his lips. He couldn't bring himself to open his eyes, not that he needed to at the moment, but felt a sparkle of happiness at the touch and at the fact that he could bring his head to move against her to respond to the desperate kiss she was giving him, realizing that her tears were wetting his face even more.

Ran had grown more panicked and desperate with every passing moment in which he was not moving or responding but remained unmoving and panting, making sounds as if in pain and sweating stronger noticeably. He then touched his forehead to hers weakly and her eyes widened as she felt that he was almost burning up.

New tears wet her soft cheeks as fear was getting a very tight grip on her heart and she looked at him almost lost. "Shinichi? Please, talk to me, what's wrong? Shinichi, please!"

But he didn't say anything. In an attempt that was driven on by pure despair, Ran clutched to her hopes, to his head and pressed her lips against his.

Her heart cheered as she felt him lean in to the kiss, although not as passionately as she would have hoped. She pulled back and hastily looked at his face for any signs of change in his condition but found none. He wouldn't even open his eyes as his lips stayed parted and he panted harder than before.

His hands lost their grip on the wall slightly and he sagged against her, his head on her shoulder. Ran quickly held on to him tightly, using all her strength to not let him fall on the ground but keep him upright the best she could. Her brows were knitted together in concern in its purest form now as she repeatedly tried to get through to him by calling his name. But it was useless for it seemed like he couldn't hear her anymore.

Just as she started crying tears of hopelessness and horror, she felt his weight being removed off her little by little. With big, teary eyes she looked up at the familiar face who was lifting most of Shinichi's weight on his shoulder.

"I'll take him to the hospital." Was all that he said with a lowered, compassionate voice, as he carried his half-conscious friend out of the entrance and into the parking lot, which wasn't far away. He was grateful that he had parked the motorcycle there earlier on.

Ran only stood there, rubbing her own arms as she, crying, watched the men exit. At first she didn't even notice Kazuha who had come after Heiji and was now hugging her sympathetically, giving her all the comfort that she could bring up.

"Don't worry, Ran-chan, Heiji will bring him to a doctor and everything will be all right, you will see!" she tried to soothe her friend while trying her hardest to retain herself from crying along with her.

But Ran didn't say anything. In fact she didn't react in any way; the only thing moving were her tears that rolled inexorably south.

* * *

_Sorry for the EVIL cliffhanger but guess what! I am sooo stuck here! Honestly, I don't know how I want this to continue! If somebody does have an idea, please tell me!_


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